Everything is Different Upon Review
by jlluh
Summary: The Hougyoku freaks out, and Ichigo and Rukia are decades in the past, alone, unprepared, depowered, and planning to fix it all, secure in their knowledge of the future. But the past is a slippery fellow.
1. Chapter 1

Ichigo burst out of the dangai into Karakura Town. He'd thought, when he'd entered it, that he'd heard his dad shouting something after him, but he'd rushed through. There was no time, and likely as not his dad was just yelling at him to hurry.

What he saw when he reached Karakura Town was utterly unexpected.

Aizen's chest was mostly missing, a vast hole in his torso, but the bastard was still alive, arm extended toward Ichimaru Gin.

"Getsuga Tenshou!"

The flying blade of black reiatsu did only minimal damage, but it at least knocked Aizen back.

Ichimaru's bankai went right through Aizen's arm, and the monster's zanpakutou hit the ground.

Ichigo loaded a Getsuga Tenshou into Tensa Zangetsu and struck Aizen in the head with his Getsuga infused blade, edge sinking in mere inches. He didn't know what it meant that Gin was fighting Aizen, but they'd sort it out once Aizen was defeated.

"Buto Renjin," said Gin, and Ichigo shunpoed out of the way as Gin's bankai made mincemeat of Aizen. Ichigo snatched up Aizen's zanpakutou.

Aizen was gone, and then Aizen was in front of them, his body more holes than flesh, but it was moving so terrifyingly fast, with such monstrous reiatsu, and it was all Ichigo could do to keep the monster away from Gin, who struck out again with his bankai, which was, in its way, even faster than Ichigo's.

Around them, people were dying, popped by the sheer spiritual pressure of the their battle. But what could he do? If he stopped fighting, Aizen would kill _all_ of them. The phrase 'collateral damage' entered Ichigo's head, and he shook it out, concentrating on the fight before him.

Isshin spilled out of the gate. On taking in the scene, he shouted, "Bankai!"

In any other situation, Ichigo would've stared. As similar as their shikai might be, their bankai were different. Isshin's bankai was a 30 foot mecha, gundam style, with Isshin somewhere inside of it. It was either the coolest or lamest thing he'd ever seen.

But the situation being what it was, Ichigo only glanced at it to assess how to fight alongside it before launching another Getsuga Tenshou at Aizen. Fighting with only one hand, but if he dropped Aizen's zanpakutou., Aizen would pick it up and use his illusions, and then they'd have no chance.

Gin was thrown through a building a blow to his head. Isshin kicked Aizen with his massive mecha foot, which tossed Aizen a little ways but did him no damage, and another dimensional portal was opening.

Not a dangai. A bright blue field of spiritual energy, like the gate Urahara had used to get them to Hueco Mundo.

A small shinigami stepped out, zanpakutou. already in shikai.

Rukia. Ichigo's eyes widened. Rukia was strong. Strong as a lot of Vice-Captains. But she had no place in this battle. It was Captain Class only. But at least, if she was coming, the rest weren't far behind. Kenpachi and Byakuya. That would do it, surely.

Aizen must've thought the same, because a raised finger shot out a cero-like blast of energy that destroyed the portal before anyone could follow after her.

"Hakuren!" shouted Rukia.

The pillar of ice bound Aizen for only the merest moment, bubbled away by his monstrous reiatsu. Rukia followed it up with a bakudo, but that was no more effective.

Aizen waved a hand, not bothering with a Kido, and the sheer force of his reiatsu sent Rukia flying.

Goat Chin brought his massive mecha sword down on Aizen, and Aizen blocked it, one handed above his head. An odd sight, the small figure stronger than the large. The mecha grunted, and a line of black blood oozed out of Aizen's hand.

Ichigo raced at Aizen, intending to drive the point of Tensa Zangetsu straight through Aizen's face, and with his free hand, Aizen batted Ichigo aside.

Head bleeding, Gin stood on a building and shot his bankai straight through the pinned Aizen. With a shout, Aizen's reiatsu rose even higher. He threw Isshin across Karakura Town and appeared on the building in front of Gin. Aizen buried his hand in Gin's chest.

Gin threw the Hougyoku into the air and immolated himself in a sacrificial Kido, setting Aizen ablaze, holding him briefly motionless.

Rukia snagged the Hougyoku out of the air and shunpoed away. A good idea. If the Hougyoku was far enough away, maybe it would stop keeping Aizen alive.

Unfortunately, Aizen had become far faster than any shinigami's shunpo.

Fortunately, the main power of Ichigo's bankai was speed.

He clashed twice with Aizen, and on the second time, his arm was broken, snapped, and Aizen had taken his zanpakutou. back.

Arm broken or not, Ichigo scooped up Rukia, racing away at top speed.

Aizen left a slash on his back. A second. A third. Toying with him. He couldn't outrun Aizen while carrying Rukia. So he turned to fight.

Aizen slowed to a walk, smiling. His reiatsu rose ever, even higher. Rukia struggled to breathe, and Ichigo's mouth went dry.

Aizen said, "Kurosaki Ichigo. Once, I took the Hougyoku from Kuchiki Rukia as you helplessly watched. No I get to do it again, but without interruption."

He'd kill her at the end, he meant.

Rukia attempted to press the Hougyoku into the palm of Ichigo's broken arm. He refused to close his fingers around it.

"Take it, Ichigo," she hissed. "You're the only one fast enough. Get it far enough from him, for long enough, and maybe..."

"No."

"Ichigo!"

"I'm not leaving you."

"You have to."

Aizen raised his zanpakutou.

Ichigo raised his.

In Rukia's hands, the Hougyoku glowed.

The Hougyoku recognized Rukia. It remembered her. It had spent decades nestled inside her, sleeping comfortably, dreaming her dreams.

It had begun to fuse with Aizen, but now it wasn't in him, but it was still part of him, and its other part was trying to kill its sleeping place whose dreams it dreamt, and she regretted so deeply, and it was all too much to bear.

The last thing they saw was Aizen, confused and frightened before the Hougyoku burst and the world went purple.

#

#

Purple faded, like how strange colors vanish as eyes adjust to the sunlight.

Ichigo found himself holding Rukia in a weedy glade amid sparse trees, dew on the leaves. It was a cold morning, the sun low on the horizon and hidden by gray skies so Ichigo could only pick out its position by which spot of cloud was oddly bright.

His arm wasn't broken. He was wearing a brown Yukata, and Rukia's was a dirty yellow.

Rukia was even smaller than normal, though not by much. He'd never been able to peg her physical age –everywhere from 14 to 22 had seemed plausible – but she was clearly moved more to the 14 end of the spectrum. 12, even.

And he wasn't that much taller.

"What the hell?" said Ichigo.

"Ichigo," she said, as if in recognition, and she vomited.

Ichigo put aside his confusion to hold her hair back and murmur reassurances as she dry-heaved again and again. He glanced around wildly as he did. He didn't see or feel Aizen anywhere. Couldn't feel the titanic clash of powers. Which meant wherever they were was a hella long way from where they'd been, and he had no idea where to go. Rukia would know, once she had gathered herself.

When Rukia's stomach had calmed, she lay on the weedy earth, eyes closed, breathing deep.

Ichigo wondered if she was asleep, and how he would keep her warm in the cold morning air.

First, he would carry her away from her vomit, into the lee of the gray boulder to his left, shielding her from the chill breeze but not from the sun's light when it finally burned through the overcast sky.

He'd hooked her by the armpits when she poke. "Ichigo, am I a shinigami?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"Am I?" her tone was urgent.

"Course. What's wrong with you?"

Rukia said, "I think I have a concussion. My memories are swimming around like fish." She opened her eyes. "Why are you small?"

"Dunno," he said, dragging her to the lee of the boulder.

"Where's Zangetsu?"

"Dunno."

"Sode no Shirayuki?"

"Dunno."

"Aizen?"

"Dunno. I don't even know where we are. Something weird happened with the Hougyoku."

Rukia looked around. "I think we're in District 78. Inuzuri. Where I grew up."

"Huh," said Ichigo, putting an arm around her shoulder.

"What are you doing?"

"You're enough trouble without hypothermia."

"Idiot. I'm an ice type. I don't get cold unless I'm in a gigai." But she shivered and moved into him. "You're the real cold one, aren't you?"

Her breath smelled of vomit, and Ichigo turned his head aside.

They sat in silence, Ichigo turning over events in his head. He didn't have Zangetsu, and he was smaller. It wasn't a mere physical relocation. It had to be some sort of sustained dreamscape created by the Hougyoku. At any moment, it might end, which meant he had to be ready to react instantly on its breaking. If Aizen was in a similar dreamscape, the moment of disorientation when it ended would be a golden opportunity.

Rukia said, "Today, I left the base to go scavenging for edible plants and lick dew off the leaves. I knew I wouldn't get too cold so long as I walked quickly."

Ichigo stared at her. "Today we fought everyone. I'm pretty sure you killed an Espada. Or maybe that was yesterday. Either way, you almost died."

"My head hurts," Rukia replied.

"Huh." Ichigo scowled more deeply than normal. Not only was he small and missing Zangetsu, but his reiryoku was way below where it should be. He hadn't been so weak since becoming a shinigami.

A presence intruded on his senses. A small one, like one of the rank and file shinigami who were happy to kill low-level Hollows in teams and leave everything else to officers. Less even. Ichigo, never known for his keen spiritual senses, wouldn't have felt it at all if the area hadn't been such a spiritual wasteland except for him and Rukia. It was like a spark in a dark room.

Abarai Renji trotted into view, panting. Abarai Renji, except he looked about 14, was wearing a threadbare bluish-gray Yukata instead of a shihakusho, and was holding a stout stick instead of Zabimaru.

Seeing them, Renji brandished the stick. "Get away from Rukia," he said.

Rukia said, "Don't you remember Ichigo?"

"No," said Renji, relaxing only fractionally.

Rukia said, "Now that I think of it, I guess you haven't met. But I've seen him around lately. He's cool." She pointed to the vomit, flies and gnats buzzing over it. "I got sick, so Ichigo was looking after me. I'm starting to feel better, so I thought we'd all go back."

Renji frowned. "You want to bring him to our base?"

"Yes," said Rukia, in a tone that brooked no argument.

#  
#

The base was as Rukia remembered. An improvised hut hidden in a little grove of trees that formed around a low spot in the ground, where rain collected. Improvised though the hut was, they had invested serious effort into proofing it against water and wind and insulating it from the cold. Two windows let in light and a breeze when required. When warmth was wanted, wooden boards were placed in the open windows, and when warmth was really, really wanted, dirt and stones were added to the ledge.

But the stove, there in all its dilapidated glory, had made a huge difference. Getting it had been an adventure, but worth it. It provided light, heat, and a method of cooking that was far more efficient than a spit over an open fire.

The hut was small, a room for five children to sleep in together, taking shelter against the cold. The inner walls were dried mud, the floor was rushes, and it was full of precious people who'd long since died.

Tokihiro. Nobu. Subaru. Each name was a treasure and a sad memory.

Yet they were also the people she saw every day, her comrades, who she'd seen just earlier that morning. The memories still swirled through her head, as if she were two Rukias, one old, one young, one a Kuchiki and one a brat of Rukongai.

She greeted her long dead friends who she'd seen earlier that day as normally as she could, and introduced them to Ichigo.

"Ugh," said Subaru. "Your breath reeks, Rukia."

"I'll bet," said Renji. "She puked all over the place."

Rukia took one of the precious jugs of water just from where they were supposed to be, hidden by the sleeping mats. It was the Kuchiki that insisted she pour herself a cup rather than drinking straight from the jug, and she did. It was also the Kuchiki that was tempted to thoroughly rinse her mouth out by spitting the water out.

The Outer-Rukongai brat knew better. Water wasn't wasted. She swished the water around, swallowed, and did it again. If any remnant of the stench remained, it could wait until she needed water again.

Rukia said, "Everyone, this is Ichigo. I've seen him around before, and he helped me out just now when I wasn't feeling well."

The others introduced themselves, and Ichigo returned the bows, even though he would surely rather shake hands or bump fists or one of his other strange human things.

She offered him a cup of water, and he knocked it back quickly and gave a casual thanks after, clearly not grasping how significant an offer of water was among the urchins of Outer-Rukongai, the solemn gratefulness with which it should be received.

And then Ichigo's stomach growled.

"You have spiritual pressure?" said Tokihiro.

"Yeah."

The others looked awkward. Offering him water was one thing. Offering him food was another.

Ichigo gestured to the stove. "If I catch something, will you guys cook it?"

"Sure," said Renji.

#

#

Followed by the others, Ichigo went outside. Looking around the bases of the trees, he found a likely looking stick, stripped the twigs off, gave it a test swing, and with a nod let the others know he was satisfied.

He took a deep breath, senses strained, trying to feel animal lives. He shortly gave it up as a lost cause. Rukia was way too bright. She seemed to have more reiatsu than he did, which was weird.

He'd have to use his eyes and ears, like everyone else.

They hadn't been walking through the sparse trees long when Ichigo caught sight of movement.

A gray rabbit, good sized, nose winkling, looking at them warily from fifty feet away. It wasn't like the half-tame rabbits at the park in the human world. It knew humans were a threat. Renji loaded his sling, but clearly needed to get a little closer.

Fifty feet away one instant, Ichigo was right behind the rabbit the next. A single hard strike of the stick broke its neck, and the rabbit, which had jumped when he appeared behind it, hit the ground in a dead heap.

Ichigo had killed plenty of insects, and Goat Chin had taken him fishing twice, but a rabbit was different. An insanely aggressive mouse had gotten into the girl's room once, but he and Karin had taken the trouble get it safely out, rather than killing it.

But he wasn't going to show his conflicted feelings to Renji. He picked up the dead rabbit as if he did such things every day.

Renji said, "You know shunpo?!"

Ichigo said, "A woman took a shine to me once and taught me for a bit. I've learned it better since then."

"A shinigami?"

"Dunno. She wasn't dressed like one and I didn't see a sword on her, but maybe."

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Lots of people besides shinigami know shunpo, Renji."

Ichigo walked back to them. He'd wondered if Rukia, Chappy lover that she was, would object, but she looked pleased as she took it. "What a cute little boy," she said, stroking the dead rabbit. "I'll skin you nice and pretty."

Renji said, "Can you teach us shunpo?"

"Maybe," said Ichigo. "It's not easy, and your reiryoku needs to be higher."

Renji blustered. "My reiryoku is plenty high enough."

"No, it ain't," said Ichigo. "Not unless you're just damn good at hiding it. But work at it and you'll improve. Anyway, I'm gonna catch more food."

And he shunpoed away before Renji could protest.

Ichigo took a long circuit through the area, getting the lay of the land. There was a little village. Some hills that had lots of stumpy trees in the valleys and a few along the ridges. A sort of stucco city. A lot of arid scrubland. A double-line of trees traced a stream. The water looked as if it wouldn't be safe for drinking even after you'd boiled it.

Rukia was acting like he'd been around, so he should at least know where stuff was. He kept alert to some hint of the battle with Aizen, but there was nothing.

He returned an hour later with two birds of the same species, a little smaller than chickens. He'd found them in the scrubland. He wondered if anything like them lived in the Human World, or if they were indigenous to Soul Society.

When he returned to the 'base,' he set the two dead birds by the stove. The boy, Tokihiro, already had the rabbit sliced into browning in the pot.

Tokihiro said, "You must be a great hunter."

As Renji scowled in the corner, Ichigo said, "I do alright. Oi, Rukia, you wanna pluck these?"

She looked up from scraping the rabbit skin and came right over. Ichigo watched her pluck a few feathers before copying her, trying to look as if he'd done it before.

The other girl came over, reminded Ichigo that her name was Subaru, and they got the birds plucked and gutted in time to enter the pot with the rabbits and various leaves and roots.

Tokihiro said, "People forget this, but water isn't enough to live on even for people without reiryoku. We need salt too." And he gestured at the birds.

Dinner was thick stew. If Ichigo hadn't been hungry, it would've been bland. As it was, he liked it. The four without reiryoku sipped broth and had a few small bites of meat and the bitter leaves and roots, but Ichigo, Rukia and Renji ate their fill. It was too much for the three of them to eat, so Rukia covered the pot and cheerfully said it would feed them the next day as well.

He caught Rukia's eyes over the pot, and she said, "Nobu-kun could you lay out a place for Ichigo to sleep? I'm going to show him where to pass water."

When they were outside, out of sight of the hut, they shunpoed away, to one of the little collections of trees in the folds of the hills.

They settled at the trunk of a low slung oak, and Rukia cast a Kido he'd never seen before, but its purpose was clear – privacy.

With the blue walls shimmering around them, Rukia spoke. "This isn't a sustained delusion. _It_ sent us back. I've merged with my younger self, and you've been de-aged to about what your age would've been 65 years ago, if you were really a shinigami. About human 13."

Ichigo accepted that as truth. He was used to accepting Rukia's words as truth and time travel was an easy pill to swallow compared to the revelation of Hollows and shinigami when they'd first met. Besides, he'd already realized it himself.

"How do we get back?" said Ichigo. But even as he asked, his mind was working. They had been losing to Aizen, their cause very nearly lost, Aizen's goal of godhood all but achieved. Returning would be worse than suicide. It would be sentencing the world, including his family, to the depredations of a sadistic god. The Hougyoku's psychotic break was nothing less than a miracle.

"We wait," said Ichigo.

Rukia said, "I've studied a great deal about reincarnation, about destiny. I've studied time manipulation – going back in time is supposed to be impossible, but there are forbidden Kido for slowing time down – and I think, I don't know, I'm not an expert, and even an expert couldn't be sure, but I think that time is springy. Everything that we don't forcefully change should go pretty much the same. Mostly. Especially who's born."

Ichigo said, "Whatever we do, things can't go exactly the same as before. Not as far as _It_ goes. Not like we are now."

Rukia said, "I talked to Urahara-san, after. He put _It_ inside me a long time before _It_ was found. Before _It_ started to wake up and became possible to find. _It_ should be inside me even now. Already."

"That..." said Ichigo, pulling on his hair. That changed things. "It'll wake up in a few decades this time too, right?" Which meant they needed to turn her into a trap. That was… a damn lot of waiting. He didn't want to wait nearly that long, but they'd obviously have to wait a while. "I guess you want to join the Gotei?"

Rukia said, "It would be best."

"We'll have to figure out a way to avoid seeing his shikai without him knowing we avoided it."

"True."

Ichigo said, "We could just hang out here, train, and when we're ready, swoop down and kick his ass."

"He's strong. Even as just a shinigami, he's so strong. He'd probably survive, and then we'd be enemies to the entirety of the Gotei 13. The criminals who attacked a popular Captain."

Ichigo sighed, admitting the point. He was fresh off almost getting half his friends killed off of recklessness. By invading Hueco Mundo, he'd played into Aizen's plans.

Rukia said, "I don't have Sode no Shirayuki. I can feel her in me, but I haven't called her yet. It's probably the same for you with Zangetsu."

"Yeah."

"We should wait on that."

"I figured." He moved to the next topic. "You want to settle here first?"

"I want to get them into a higher district. 65, maybe. Rukongai gets a lot safer starting around then."

Ichigo said, "We just walk, right?"

"It's not that simple. Changing Districts means crossing a lot of territory we don't know anything about, ruled by gangs we've never heard of. For us, it's no trouble, but for the others..."

"We'll just protect them."

"Fool, how much attention do you want to attract? And don't think everyone here is weak. There are criminals in Rukongai who could make us dearly wish we had zanpakutou. You and I will scout ahead with shunpo and map out a good route for the others, and then we'll shepherd them through it. And we have to get some money. In the higher districts, everywhere is someone's property, and they kick you out if they catch you squatting, and they have vagrancy laws."

Ichigo rubbed his brow. Helping out her friends was a bigger undertaking than he'd realized, and it wasn't even their only immediate problem. "Is Renji going to realize your reiryoku has suddenly jacked up to almost Lieutenant level?"

She snorted. "That idiot? Not likely. He may have reiryoku, but he can't sense reiatsu for shit. But he is going to be frustrated by how quickly you _teach_ me shunpo. I'll just be a born genius, is all. But we will have to hide our true strength, as much as possible. I'll teach you how, if you're not too thick to learn. Lesson one starts right now, and then I'll tell you everything you need to know to make it seem like you've been here for years."

:::  
That I am not the sort of person who finishes my fanfics may just be something I'm learning about myself. Hardly the worst character fault, so long as it's restricted to fanfiction. Ah well. I've enjoyed plenty of uncompleted fics. This is at about 40k words on my computer. Maybe reviews will encourage me to finish it. Probably not.


	2. Chapter 2

**Everything is Different Upon Review: 2**

Rukia was a good (if volatile) instructor in the arts of reiatsu control and basic Kido drills. Ichigo wished she'd instructed him on it back when it was just the two of them hunting Hollows in Karakura, but she'd been preoccupied with keeping him alive and hadn't been aiming to make him anymore of a shinigami than he'd needed to be.

Since then, there'd always been something more pressing than teaching him the basics he'd missed out on. Like suppressing his Inner Hollow.

Sitting on a rock by the 'base,' in the shade of a dry, scraggly tree, Ichigo maintained a volleyball-sized sphere of blue reiatsu in his right hand. He was keeping it stable, mostly.

Next to him, Renji had a smaller and less dense flickering ball of red reiatsu.

Rukia was shamelessly showing off her skills as an experienced shinigami, with a little white ball of reiatsu at the tip of each finger of her right hand.

Renji scowled. "You've gotten better."

She flipped her hair. "My natural talent finally showing through."

"Show off," said Ichigo.

"If you don't like it, catch up to me."

He formed a reiatsu ball in his left hand, but the one in his right flickered and went out.

"Keep doing one until maintaining it is second nature, I said, before you advance to two."

He rolled his eyes but returned to doing just one. He would've preferred to learn actual Kido, but Rukia said they had no justifiable way of knowing any actual Kido spells, whereas the exercises Rukia had shown him were plausibly derived from a mixture of common knowledge and personal experimentation.

Renji's ball of reiatsu fizzled, then exploded as he overcompensated.

It wasn't a big explosion. It didn't even singe his eyebrows. The only consequence should be a mild stinging on face. But Renji cursed and snapped a stick with a stomp. "This is stupid. What can we even do with this?"

Rukia said, "It's practice to prepare us to do other things."

"Yeah, I'd rather do those other things."

"This is what we've got, so buck up and stop complaining."

Renji snorted and stalked away, loosely swinging his favorite stick. Ichigo supposed he was off to beat up an unoffending tree. With he and Rukia being such efficient hunters, Renji had a lot of free time, he spent a lot of it on that pursuit.

Watching Renji walk away, Rukia said, "What crawled up his butt and died?"

"He's competitive."

Rukia said, "I've always been better than him at this sort of thing. It didn't bother him so much before."

That wasn't what Ichigo had meant, but he let it pass. Renji's confidence was way, way down Ichigo's list of concerns. The pineapple would just have to get used to it.

Ichigo said, "How are we on funds?" Rukia was a master haggler, so he let her sell their surplus catches.

She frowned. "At this rate, it'll be years until we have enough money. Bribes aren't cheap. I'm considering more aggressive action."

"Like what?" said Ichigo.

#

#

On a cool fall day, Abarai Renji pushed off against the ground, lunged into the air, and hit the ground.

"Shit," said Renji, spitting out dirt.

Ichigo said, "I already told you that have to increase your reiryoku before you can even think of doing shunpo." He was holding a thick stick, a staff, standing casually in a shaft of sunlight.

"Rukia learned it quick," said Renji, coming back to his feet and angrily brushing twigs out of his hair.

"She has way more reiryoku than you do."

"And so do you," said Renji bitterly.

"True. But not as much as Rukia."

"Really?" Renji looked surprised.

"Sure. I guess she always has, maybe, and now that she's learning to use it, she could probably kick your ass and mine together. And anyone else in the District, maybe." And she wasn't letting him forget it, the bitch. He was sure he'd shoot back ahead of her as soon as he fetched Zangetsu from his soul, but that was for later, and for the moment her Lieutenant level self, minus her zanpakutou, shoved back into her old form surpassed his 13 year-old self by an irritating amount.

Whenever they slipped away to practice hiding their reiryoku and reiatsu, she smugly pointed out that she had more and was showing less.

Ichigo said, "I've told you that you should do Rukia's exercises, instead of wasting your time on shunpo when your reiryoku isn't even high enough. I'm going hunting."

"Don't give that excuse," said Renji. "You're always gone for hours. The whole day even. But you could catch enough food for the day in 20 minutes."

"Maybe," said Ichigo. "See ya." And he shunpoed away.

#

#

Ichigo met Rukia on a hill, overlooking a small walled complex.

What was inside was just a gang. Nothing special. No greater tie in. The local protection racket. The only purpose of observing them had been to confirm that they didn't include any of Rukia's 'criminals strong enough to make you wish you had your zanpakutou.' And also to confirm that they were really, truly horrible people, rather than a proto-government.

Observing their treatment of young woman in the area had ended all reservations. The gang was only a cash machine, and they could rob it without any guilt.

So they did. Ichigo and Rukia ghosted into their base one morning – it was a real, proper base, with guards and a wall, though the guards weren't many and the wall was just a double-layer of brick, too narrow to stand on.

Ichigo and Rukia were masked, and Ichigo had a rabbit skin cap on his head, hiding his orange hair. No reason to get stories started. They both held nice, solid, wooden sticks, carefully fire hardened. A homemade bouken for Rukia, and a staff for Ichigo, as long as his shikai had been.

He rammed one end of his staff into a man's chest, heard ribs crack as the man left his feet, and continued on. A single shunpo took him directly inside the guard of an especially big looking man, and a palm strike to the chin took care of that.

The men were big, and they had swords, and a lot of them had some reiryoku, but fighting them wasn't anything.

Rukia casually brushed a man's sword aside, moved forward, and tapped the man's head. The man hit the ground, unconscious.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. She hadn't hit hard at all. She'd just used the skin contact to channel reiatsu into the guy. A tai-chi strike, basically. Ichigo supposed it wouldn't work well against anyone close to you in level, but it was a nice, gentle way to put down the local thugs.

"Hado 4: Byakurai!"

Ichigo's eyes widened. A man dressed more nicely than most, was pointing at him the blueish-white streak of the laser-like Hado headed straight toward them. Ichigo raised a hand, pushing reiatsu out into it, and the Byakurai fizzled away into nothing as it struck his palm.

The man's eyes widened. Ichigo shunpoed forwards and tapped the man on the chest, trying to copy what Rukia had just done.

It didn't work. It just threw the man through the air so hard that when he struck the wall of the big house they were all coming out of, the wall cracked.

The man had more reiryoku than anyone else they'd encountered, so he should live.

Rukia went immediately to his recumbent form and rummaged through his clothing.

"What are you doing?" said Ichigo, even as he took care of two more with his stick.

Hah!" Rukia said, pulling out a book. Ichigo recognized the Kanji for Kido on its cover.

Ichigo focused on fighting. It was nice how he could move his hands all along the length of his stick, and he began taking advantage of that, using it more like a staff rather than a big sword.

Another man entered the fray. The previous swords had only left scratches on the stick, but the new sword was different. It took a big chunk out of the stick, and the second swing sheared straight through it. Ichigo shunpoed behind him, knocked him on the head, and very nearly got slashed on the arm as the man withstood the hit and counter-attacked. Ichigo grabbed hold his arm, and they grappled briefly. Rukia hit him on the head as well and his eyes rolled back.

Ichigo took the sword. Wielding it in one hand, beating people with its flat, and wielding the broken stick in the other, he finished off their remaining antagonists.

Ichigo and Rukia entered the house that the toughs had swarmed out of. It was largely empty. A woman and a boy fled from the invaders, and they continued on.

The safe was easy to find. A man in fine furs was in the process of opening it. Rukia knocked him out with an overly forceful kick to the face (they'd seen him taking away a teenage girl to pay her family's debts) and Rukia and Ichigo approached the safe.

Rukia gestured to the sword Ichigo held. "That's an asauchi. An empty zanpakutou. He must've gotten it black market. Only shinigami and nobles are allowed to have them. It should go through normal steel."

Ichigo put two hands on the asauchi's hilt and cut straight through the safe's door. Five swipes, and the door hit the floor with a clang.

Inside was plenty of Kan, Soul Society's money, but also gold and precious jewelry, and even tablets of salt.

Rukia and Ichigo shoveled the riches into burlap bags and left before any trouble could come.

#

#

Kids who survived District 78 for any length of time were invariably tough and clever. So when Rukia burst into the 'base' and declared it was time to leave, there hadn't been any unnecessary delay. And only Renji had grumbled about being ferried along with shunpo.

They reached their first planned stopping place before night fell, and set up the tent they'd acquired. A rolled grass mat, tightly woven canvas, and six wooden posts. The canvas could be oiled in case of rain.

The Districts were an array of wide, concentric circles. Whenever Ichigo tried to estimate how many people lived within, the resulting numbers were impressively large.

Even ferrying people along with shunpo, it took a day and half to get into District 77. Rukia had explained that Shinigami used Sentan Hakuja, the teleportation Kido, to help them navigate Rukongai, but that option was not available to them. Special materials and network access were required.

At their stop on the third day, an abandoned old hut with a good view of the land around, Rukia demanded that their third stop over be extended. She copied out the quarter of the Kido manual, a process that took most of the day and left her hand cramped.

She gave Renji the copy and instructed him and Ichigo both in Kido basics. She'd already had them doing as many drills as an Outer-Rukongai brat could conceivably know, but now that they had the book, they could justify attempting the simplest Kido.

Renji was frustrated at how quickly she _learned_ it, and Ichigo was frustrated by how slowly he was learning it compared to how quickly he'd learned most other things.

After two days, they moved on, continuing through the Districts, stopping not infrequently. Even with money and the ability to ferry the others along via shunpo, it took weeks to get to District 65, and weeks more, plus a bribe, to get everyone a decent apartment and decent jobs working on a Kuchiki-owned farm.

By then, Rukia had _learned_ the first 45 Kido, Ichigo had learned the first few, and Renji had stopped keeping count of how many times he'd burned his eyebrows off.

#  
#

The apartment was small, and not exactly nice, but it was warmer and a little larger than their old base. And they had a water faucet. The water that came out of it was drinkable, though some people advised boiling it first, just to be safe. They had a low table to eat at, and they all had blankets and simple futons.

Tokihiro was making tea, as he often was. Not tea that he'd bought, simply steeping some leaves he knew to be edible. He poured tea all around, and Rukia, without hesitation, reached the topic of the meeting.

Rukia said, "I'm going to become a shinigami."

No one looked surprised. Nobu was concerned, and Renji looked sour, but Tokihiro and Subaru only nodded.

Ichigo said, "I'm also going to become a shinigami."

Nobu said, "Are you sure you shouldn't wait until you're older? I hear lots of shinigami are killed by Hollows."

"We're not sure," said Rukia. "But the stronger we become, the more attractive we are to Hollows. So not becoming Shinigami as soon as possible is also dangerous." Dangerous to those around them.

Nobu nodded.

Rukia said, "Once I'm a shinigami and I'm making some money, I'll come back here to check on you guys. But..."

"But this is goodbye," said Tokihiro.

"Not forever," said Rukia.

Tokihiro smiled sadly. "You will succeed. You will become an important shinigami. I believe it. The three of us, me, Subaru, Nobu, if we're very, very lucky, will rise to the middle-class. Someday, we will be strangers to you, connected only by hazy, long ago memories."

Rukia said, "We could never be strangers."

Tokihiro said, "I'm the oldest one here, so listen to me. We encounter each other. In good ways and bad. Sometimes we continue on with each other for a while. But unless you both do nothing, there are very few people you can continue on with for your whole life. The time has come for us to part. If hope this part of your journey has been better for my being a part of it. Mine has been better for you being a part of it." He bowed. "It has been an honor, Rukia. It has been an honor, Ichigo."

"Yes," said Rukia, eyes moist as she bowed in return, "it has been an honor."

Ichigo bowed as well. He couldn't not, when Takahiro had been so formal. "It's been an honor," he repeated, mouth dry.

Tokihiro turned his eyes to Renji, all the others following his gaze.

Rukia said, "Renji, Ichigo and I aren't waiting for the next evaluation in this District. It could be years. We're going to shunpo to Seireitei and do the evaluation there. No waiting. Renji, we'd be happy to bring-"

"No," said Renji. "I'll become a shinigami too, but later. In my own time."

"You're sure? If you're worried about shunpo, Ichigo and I can carry you."

"Very." He looked around the room. "I'm not ready to say goodbye yet."

Nobu patted Renji on the shoulder. Subaru said, "When are you two leaving?"

"The day after tomorrow," said Rukia. "We didn't want to drag it out."

Later that night, as Rukia and Ichigo were taking their normal time to 'practice shunpo,' together, racing through the village beneath the stars, Ichigo said, "It's a shame Tokihiro doesn't have reiryoku. He'd be a good one."

"Yes."

"He deserves it. Someone like Tokihiro shouldn't be helpless just because he wasn't blessed with a particular talent."

"We'll have to make sure he isn't then. That the laws apply to everyone, strong and weak alike."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. Her execution was quite a thing to joke about. "And make sure they're good laws too."

#

#

Without anyone else to worry about, they made much faster time than had been possible before, and they hardly bothered to go around potentially dangerous areas. What before had taken a day could be crossed in an hour, and what had taken a week before could be crossed in a day, and they had money enough to sleep in hostels rather than going to the trouble of making camp.

A good thing too, since the Districts got a bit thicker closer in. And richer and more densely populated too.

They bought nicer yukata in District 46 and continued on.

After a few days of travel, they were nearly to Seireitei, at the edge of District 4, when Rukia slowed to a walk.

Ichigo didn't think anything of that. It wasn't like they shunpoed constantly. They stopped for food, for interesting sights, and for breathers, and the part of District 4 they were in was interesting.

There were a lot of little shops full of various types of art. Paintings. Calligraphy. Ceramics. Jewelers.

Ichigo got them onigiri at a little shop and was happy to walk around the area with her.

At first.

When they'd been wandering the same area for nearly two hours, Ichigo said, ""You're lost again."

"No."

We're going in circles."

Rukia said, "I'm looking for something?"

"And you're not gonna tell me what it is?" Normally, he would start a fight with her, but they'd made a tacit agreement to never speak of their future knowledge, even in private, because you never knew who might be listening. So too often, when they should be yelling at each other, he was hanging on her every word, trying to figure out what she meant.

"I'm looking for the arts area."

"We're in the arts area."

Rukia said, "I just want to see all of it. And if I don't find it here, we'll see if District 4 has a different arts area."

"Alright..." said Ichigo, uncertain. She was the one who knew stuff. He'd go along with her.

Rukia had recently told him to keep an eye out for a mapmaker's shop when a woman called out behind them. "Hisana-san! Hisana-san!"

Rukia turned, and Ichigo with her.

The woman yelling 'Hisana,' was middle-aged, black, and wearing a lot of expensive yet frumpy clothing. She stopped, obviously confused when she got a better look at Rukia. "You're not Hisana," she said.

"No," said Rukia. "I'm not. Who's Hisana?"

Ichigo, who'd heard the outlines of the story, fought to school his expression into one of mild confusion and interest, but he wasn't a practiced enough actor. He scowled instead. Scowling he could do, any time, any place.

Rukia though… Rukia was on point. He'd always thought her 'gentle high school girl,' act was shit, but it'd fooled everyone else, so credit where credit was due. Not that he'd ever say it. Presently, she looked exactly as if she were being told by a random woman off the street that there was a local screen maker who looked just like her.

"And then I turn right?" said Rukia, repeating the directions in a mildly inquisitive tone.

"Right. You can't miss it. Kotsuki paper screens. It's right between the jewelers and the giant chicken."

"Thank you," said Rukia. "We'll check it out." She looked like any Outer-Rukongai brat suppressing the wild hope that maybe she had family after all. And as they followed the lady's directions, Ichigo couldn't quite believe that the complicated, subtle emotions running across her face was the result of acting. Rukia wasn't like him. She hadn't been cleanly sent back in time. In her own words, she'd merged with her younger self. With an Outer-Rukongai brat who had probably grown up suppressing the wild hope that somewhere out there she had family.

The giant chicken was thirty feet tall, made of wood, and detailed. Disturbingly lifelike. It wasn't an advertisement for anything. It was just there.

Ichigo doubted that Rukia saw it. Her eyes were fixed on Kotsuki Screens.

#

#

The shop was a traditional building, but with wide glass windows. Some of the screens within were paper, and some were silk. Most of the art on them were nature scenes. Trees, waterfalls and the like.

Elegant and clean. Simple, until you looked more closely. Traditional, with a slight, indescribable modern feel. The aesthetic reminded her of Nii-sama, and Rukia wondered what that meant. Had they been drawn together in part by a similar aesthetic, or had his aesthetic been an homage to her?

There were dashes of whimsy hidden in the formalism. A ladybug nestled among the cherry blossoms. A tiny child playing among immense trees, hard to see. A boulder that, on closer inspection, was hiding a smile.

And there were other subjects. A giant skeleton. People dancing amid the snow. Even a bear quailing before a 30-foot chicken.

Her eyes passed over all of it, hungry, skipping over and over the woman inside. She couldn't move.

Ichigo clapped her on the shoulder. "You gonna go in, or are you gonna stand out here till we get arrested for loitering without enough money?"

Rukia took a deep breath and opened the door.

It jingled. The woman looked up from the papers strewn across her desk.

It wasn't like looking into a mirror, but it was close.

"Rukia?" breathed the woman.

Rukia couldn't speak.

Ichigo said, "That's her name."

From the table in front of her, the woman took a smooth, pinkish stone, and held onto it as if for dear life.

Rukia was squeezing Ichigo's hand so hard it ached, but he said nothing.

"Hello Rukia," said the woman. "My name is Hisana. I'm your older sister." And she knelt in dogeza.

#

#

Ichigo couldn't have imagined a more awkward start than dogeza, the ultimate prostration of apology, but the sisters were dealing with it well. They'd even progressed to tea. There was a lot of crying going on, but only metaphorically. This was Rukia, after all, so whatever salt water was squeezing out of her pinched tear ducts was staying firmly on her glistening eyes. Hisana, unexpectedly, seemed to be cut of a similar cloth.

"You were young," Hisana was saying. "Old enough to speak a little, and to toddle. Even to run, though you'd fall after a few steps. Then you'd try again. I kept trying to get us into District 77. I thought everything would be better there, but it was very hard to get past the border gangs, and I..." She touched her cheek in a way that made Ichigo wonder if she were remembering a broken jaw. "It was difficult. In my own weakness, I abandoned you. When I regained my senses and came back, you weren't where I'd left you. I thought you'd wandered off. But however I looked, I couldn't find you. After just a few days, I called it fate and gave up." Her voice turned yet more bitter. "I shouldn't have."

"It's not your fault," said Rukia.

"It's obviously my fault."

"You were in an impossible situation."

"No, only a difficult one," Hisana declared.

"If I'd been a less troublesome baby, crying less, less demanding, I'm sure you wouldn't have been pushed so far."

Hisana said, "That's no excuse. And if I'd taken better care of you, you would've been less trouble. Not that you were any trouble."

"If I'd stayed where you left me, you would've reclaimed me."

"I abandoned you in 78 North. You didn't get to 78 West on your own. Someone took you."

Rukia said, "Surely after I wandered off, someone viewed me as a lost child in need of water. If I had only stayed put-"

Ichigo smacked his fist onto her desk, hard enough to make both women jump and the tea cups rattle. "This is not a competition!" Ichigo yelled. "You don't need to argue over who's the worse person. You're both fine. Just cry and hug or something." He crossed his arms over his chest and turned awkwardly away.

#

#

Ichigo hung around on the roof as Rukia and Hisana spoke for hours. He practiced a few Kido exercises, re-read through some of the Kido book, which he'd nabbed from Rukia before heading to the roof, making sure he'd memorized the spells, but he couldn't train all the time.

He would've liked something fun to do, a manga maybe, but he was restricted to watching people move about the streets and mulling over the past and future.

It wasn't one that should matter much, but Rukia meeting Hisana was the first real change they'd brought about. They'd intended from the beginning to change things. Trying to keep everything exactly the same so that Aizen would take action in the exact same way and they could trap him was stupid. They couldn't help changing some things, and if Aizen changed his plans enough, they'd be pantsed.

So the only sensible thing was to make as many positive changes as possible and trust that positivity usually led to more positivity.

Hisana and Rukia meeting was surely good for both of them, but it shouldn't matter in the larger scheme of things. Unless it did. Unless changing Hisana changed Byakuya and changing Byakuya changed everything. No way to know.

He felt more clueless about the future than he ever had before he'd known it.

Rukia said that time was springy. Ichigo didn't know if that reassured or frightened him.

When he was called in for dinner, the sisters seemed far more relaxed. Not tear-streaked, which was no surprise, but they'd had their heart to heart.

Hisana lead them up a narrow staircase to the second story, where she had a materials room and her living quarters. Not large. A well-kept sitting room where she also slept, a kitchen, and a restroom with indoor plumbing but no bath or shower.

Rukia said, "The shop seemed large."

Hisana explained, "There's another living quarters on the second floor. Two young woman who are attending the University. One is studying engineering, and the other fine arts."

University. Ichigo hadn't realized Soul Society had any sort of higher education beyond what was offered in Seireitei itself. But of course it did. No society could be so large and rich otherwise. Who had he supposed had been designing all those bridges and tall buildings? But it probably wasn't a modern sort of university.

Hisana said, "I will prepare dinner for the three of us."

Rukia said, "I'll help."

Ichigo said, "You have tasted your cooking, haven't you?"

She kicked him. "I can learn from Hisana nee-san."

"Another time," said Hisana. "This time, I would like to cook for you."

As Hisana was in the kitchen, pots clattering, appetizing smells spreading through the apartment, Ichigo and Rukia poked around. There was art on the walls. Some hers, some not. A large closet held clothing and two futons. One of the futons looked much newer than the other. Ichigo guessed than when she'd bought the new one, she simply hadn't discarded her old one.

The materials room held the expected silk, paper, paint, and brushes, but also wood, glue, small screws, and various astringent chemicals that he didn't have names for.

They circled back to the main room and examined the narrow black bookcase. It was about half art, a quarter history, and a quarter romance. Ichigo was most interested in the art books, but he made himself skim a history book instead.

Rukia kicked back and read a romance, the bitch. No doubt she'd spend the next year freely spouting every historical nugget she'd learned in 40 plus years of being a shinigami, and she'd attribute her knowledge to her big sister's library despite not reading a single page of any of the histories. And when Ichigo didn't know as much, she'd scold him for not being diligent. He could see it as surely as if he'd traveled back in time.

He slapped her stomach, and the brief tussle concluded with them leaning against each other as they read.

Hisana called them in for a meal, at a low, traditional table without any chairs. A paper lamp hanging from the ceiling over the table had a black dragon painted all the way around it, casting a draconic shadow on the walls.

The meal was Toshikoshi Soba. A celebratory food associated with New Years. Some of the best soba he'd ever had. Certainly the best meal he'd had since coming to Soul Society. He had to fight for every scrap of table manners. Had to fight to keep himself from eating so quickly he made himself sick.

"A second bowl?" said Hisana.

"That'd be great," said Ichigo, wiping his chin clean.

As their stomachs filled, conversation sprouted. Rukia wanted to know more about how Hisana had gotten from District 78 to District 4. It was quite the saga, and Ichigo suspected she was leaving the more graphic incidents out. It had all clearly gotten a lot less life threatening once she'd gotten herself apprenticed to a screen maker in district 61.

Rukia said, "Where did you learn to paint?"

Hisana said, "When I appeared in District 78, I remembered little of my human life, but I knew how to draw, sew, read, write, and do arithmetic. Not the most practical of skills, there. Only the sewing was any use, at first."

Hisana said, "From what you said, the two of you got here easily. I still don't understand how."

Ichigo said, "We're quick, and we're good at not being noticed.

Hisana said, "You both have more reiatsu than I do, I think. And you know how to control it, don't you?"

Hisana's spiritual pressure was tiny. Like Renji's. Smaller even, despite her being older. She was Rukia's sister, and so she had some talent, but not a lot, Ichigo thought.

Rukia said, "We're here to take Shino Academy's entrance exam and become shinigami. So we practice every day. You should practice with us tomorrow. Increasing and mastering your reiryoku will extend your lifespan, make you much less likely to die in an accident, and a little less likely to die of illness. You should absolutely work on it. I'll help you."

Hisana said, "Perhaps. But I have no intention of ever being a shinigami." She made eye contact with Rukia. "It's very dangerous, I'm told. You don't have to do it. You can stay with me. Your friend too. I'll teach you, and help you find jobs. Anything."

"Thank you," Rukia said, voice rough. "But Ichigo and I will become shinigami. We've seen Hollows. We've seen them eat people. People we knew. And so we want to fight them. To protect people."

Hisana said, "Stay with me until the exams, at least."

"We would be happy to," said Rukia.

#

#

Ichigo enjoyed the bathhouse. After months in Outer-Rukongai, cleaning himself in water that was itself clean was an even bigger luxury than the water being hot, and in District 4 he didn't have to worry about being jumped by his fellow bathers.

He dried himself with a fluffy towel, supplied by the bathhouse and put on his own yukata, which they'd cleaned for small charge. He cleaned his teeth with one of the first Kido Rukia had taught him, a minty blue aura of light that surrounded one index finger and gently got all the gunk off. It was one of the large class of 'daily' Kido that were neither Bakudo nor Hado.

The day he'd learned it had been a good one. Priorly, he'd been reduced to scraping a fingernail over his teeth to get the yellowy film off.

Freshening his breath was almost a pity. Hisana hadn't made the red bean pastries she'd served, buying them from a confectioner instead, but they'd been every bit as good as her soba.

He met the sisters in the lobby, and they rushed back to Hisana's place, skin goosebumping in the chill evening air.

Hisana's apartment was only a little warmer. She started the furnace, but it was small, and Ichigo supposed the night would be cool, which was fine. He was used to roughing it outside. Hisana laid out the two futons, frowning at the small space between them.

Ichigo read the indecision in Hisana's eyes. In Outer-Rukongai, you slept in one room and huddled for warmth except on warm summer nights. It'd taken getting used to, but after most of a year, Ichigo didn't think twice about Rukia nestled into his chest and someone else pushing against his back.

But a proper lady of Inner-Rukongai, which Hisana was clearly trying to be, didn't sleep alongside a pubescent boy she hardly knew.

Ichigo walked straight over and scooped up the older futon. He was tempted to take it into the materials room, but, unlike the main room, it had no hearth.

He dragged it instead to the opposite wall, saying, "You got a blanket or two?" Cold wasn't a real problem for him. He could keep himself warm by leaking reiatsu in the right way. But doing that prevented his sleep from being truly restful, so he'd rather not.

Rukia threw two blankets at him, and a wool hat that was only a little scratchy. She turned her attention to Hisana.

Hisana scooted to one side of the futon, motioning for Rukia to take the place next to her.

The smaller girl slipped in.

Hisana said, "I'll buy a third futon tomorrow," and she closed her eyes, pulling the blankets up past her chin.

Ichigo put on the wool hat and lay his yukata and blankets over himself. His breathing evened, but he found it hard to sleep. His mind was full, and he wasn't used to sleeping so far from Rukia. Not that they cuddled. They didn't sleep under the same blankets except on the chilliest of nights. It was a step too far. They tended to roll themselves up in their own blankets and then press against each other, each of them breathing in the other's reiatsu.

The temperature was dropping, the blankets were still cool, and Ichigo got up, moving his futon closer to the furnace, and so a little closer to the two sisters, who were visible in its dim orange glow.

They did look similar, it was true, but Ichigo could never mistake one for the other. Rukia's features were sharper, spikier, not so gently rounded. The sisters clutched each other in sleep, arm in arm, Rukia more relaxed than he had ever seen her, and Ichigo knew that what he was seeing should've happened the first time around.

:::

Hmm. Rukia and Ichigo aren't arguing very much. But I feel like in this situation they wouldn't? Their arguments were usually superficial, and so far I'm mostly skipping slice of life stuff. And they're not in the human world for Rukia to do things wrong in.

People often underestimate how strong wood is. Most armies throughout history fought with polearms, like spears, swords being only sidearms. Those that did use swords as their main weapons usually used them alongside shields, which are primarily made of wood as well. That an asauchi can shear straight through a staff is an example of asauchi being magic.

Obviously, Hisana appears so briefly even in flashbacks that I have a lot of freedom with her character. People often make her fragile or timid, partially because she died of illness, but, ya know, that doesn't make people fragile or timid? Just sick. She should be someone who meshes with Byakuya and keeps on calling him Byakuya-sama even after they're married (which probably makes a lot more sense to Japanese people.)

She survived District 78 and somehow rose to become the wife of one of the most influential men in Soul Society. She was presumably tough as nails.


	3. Chapter 3

**Everything is Different Upon Review: 3**

Ichigo and Rukia helped with opening Hisana's shop. Sweeping the floor and the stoop outside and dusting everywhere.

Ichigo was a little anxious to go find out when Seireitei would next have Entrance Exams, but Rukia deserved a few worry-free days with her sister.

So they would remain at Hisana's, helping out, practicing what they could, and reading books as Rukia got to know her sister. Ichigo supposed that if it dragged on much, he should get an odd job. He watched Hisana sell a paper screen for a high price, but hers clearly wasn't a high volume business. After rent and all the rest, he doubted she had much left at the end of a month. He didn't want to eat through her savings.

They still had money left from the gang they'd robbed. He just didn't want to explain the money to Hisana.

Rukia said, "Hisana nee-san, when do you find the time to make all these screens?"

Hisana gestured to the hours posted in the window. They looked substantial to Ichigo. If Hisana meant that she made the screens in the time not devoted to actually running the shop, a tendency to overwork must run in the family.

Rukia said, "I could mind the shop while you paint screens."

"Perhaps later, when you've seen more of how it's done. But I can't leave the shop floor today. Today is Saturday," said Hisana.

"So?"

Hisana said, "Kuchiki-sama is coming."

Rukia's pause was small and almost natural. "Kuchiki as in House Kuchiki?"

"He's the young head," said Hisana, "and the 3rd Seat of Division 6, of the Gotei 13. He comes every Saturday to examine my work, so long as he isn't occupied. He's my best customer." But from the tension in her voice, and the slight blush to her cheeks, 'best-customer' clearly wasn't all.

Hisana hurriedly explained, "He pays for paper screens in his Division, and they are always being broken by the rowdy shinigami. He has to come weekly."

Rukia said, "We should get out of your way, then."

"No," said Hisana. "He'll want to meet you. He helped me look for you, once, in District 78."

Rukia was stricken. To cover it up, Ichigo said, "That's pretty generous for a customer."

"He's a true gentleman, and he knew I couldn't safely get there and back without assistance. And he'd never been to District 78 before. He thought that as a shinigami, he should familiarize himself with the lay of the land. It took no time at all to get there using Sentan Hakuja."

"Of course," said Ichigo. "I'm sure the Head of House Kuchiki does personal favors for lots of shop keepers."

Hisana gave him a very familiar glare and pulled out a green ceramic tea set. Nicer than the tea set she'd been serving them from. Simple, elegant and well-cared for. She vacillated between setting out four cups and two.

Finally, she set out four and busied herself with making the already clean shop truly spotless. Ichigo and Rukia assisted, and when Hisana was satisfied, she looked at the clock and vanished into her upstairs apartment. She returned shortly, face washed and hair brushed, expression unruffled by their looks.

Rukia and Ichigo were wisely silent, Rukia realizing that the kimono Hisana was wearing was nicer than the Kimono she'd worn the previous day. Her nicest, perhaps.

Before long, Rukia felt the pulse of a familiar reiatsu, though it was was lesser and younger than she'd ever felt it before. But still powerful. She guessed that he'd recently attained bankai.

Kuchiki Byakuya came into view.

He was dressed in the standard garb of a shinigami, missing the white kensieken in his hair, though he had the white gloves and wide white scarf.

When he saw Rukia standing with Hisana, his eyes widened, looking from older to younger. "Hisana-san?" he asked the older, voice full of question.

Hisana bowed. "Kuchiki-sama, allow me to introduce you to my younger sister, Rukia.

Rukia bowed, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Kuchiki-sama."

When she rose from her bow, Byakuya was smiling. His teeth weren't showing, but it was no little quirk of his lips, not the mere 'relaxation of jaw,' that she was used to associating with his pleasure. It was a true, warm smile, if only with his lips, directed at Hisana.

"You found her," he said. "I'm glad."

Hisana said, "In truth, she found me. She and her friend were walking through the District when someone noticed the resemblance and approached her."

Ichigo figured the 'her friend' part was his cue to step out from behind the threshold. "Yo, Byakuya-san."

Rukia stomped on his foot.

"Oi, what's the big deal. I said -san. He's my friend's older sister's friend. There's no reason to get all formal."

Byakuya's gaze, which had turned rigid at Ichigo's address, softened slightly.

Rukia stomped on Ichigo's foot again. "you should still use his surname at the very least, you idiot."

"Fine," said Ichigo, though he didn't really plan to start addressing Byakuya that respectfully. He would just avoid saying the guy's name. Not like it would be hard. He doubted they'd have much to do with each other.

Kuchiki Byakuya said, "I will take you all to lunch."

"Kuchiki-sama," said Hisana, in protest.

"It is a day to be celebrated. And I have told you to call me Byakuya-sama, at least."

"It wouldn't be proper," Hisana demurred.

Rukia couldn't tell what would be improper, Hisana calling him by his personal name or him taking them out to eat, both perhaps. But Hisana hardly looked displeased.

Improper or not, it shortly happened – not Hisana calling him by name, but them going out to eat. Hisana locked her shop and Byakuya took them first to a clothing store so that he could buy Rukia and Ichigo more reputable yukata to wear. Green for Ichigo, and for Rukia, a golden orange that contrasted perfectly with her her purplish-blue eyes.

In a hastily whispered conversation, Rukia told Ichigo that the clothing was of good quality, but not outrageously expensive. Middle-class wear that could go most places, much like what Hisana was wearing.

On hearing that Byakuya was not only helping them, but wasn't embarrassing them with a condescending gift of riches, Ichigo had forced himself to approach the noble, bob his head, and mutter, "Thanks, Kuchiki-san."

Byakuya had looked amused and said, "Points for trying," as he turned away, leaving Ichigo poleaxed.

Ichigo hadn't hated Byakuya. He'd respected the guy. He'd been powerful and hard working. Rukia and Renji had both known him a damn lot better and had seemed to admire him. He'd respected that Byakuya had chosen not to outright kill him when they'd first met, even if it'd been at Rukia's urging. He'd respected that Byakuya hadn't killed Ganju either, which he could've easily done. Ichigo had respected that, once Aizen's perfidy had been revealed, Byakuya had been willing to die for his sister. Ichigo had even sorta respected that Byakuya had been willing to kill the sister he was willing to die for because it was the law and no one should be above it, though mostly Ichigo had thought that was weird and screwed up. And of course, he'd respected that Byakuya, as an uber noble, had married a commoner because he loved her, defying his family in the process.

But Ichigo had imagined their falling in love process as something out of an old tragedy. Byakuya saving her from a Hollow, seeing her wide, frightened eyes and the white nape of her neck and falling instantly in love.

In point of fact, it seemed Byakuya had come into her shop once because he liked painted silk and paper screens and Hisana painted paper and silk screens for a living, and they'd gotten to talking and had hit it off.

It was way too normal. And Byakuya was way too normal. Young. Happy. Hopeful. With a sense of humor that wasn't bitter sarcasm hidden beneath a hundred calcified layers of pretentious dignity.

Ichigo was half-tempted to like this Kuchiki Byakuya, and he felt stupid for not having realized that the love of your life dying slowly of a painful, lingering illness only a few years after you'd defied your whole family in order to marry her was an experience that could change a person.

Their old clothes in bags, Byakuya led them to the restaurant. From what Ichigo could tell, it was like the clothing. Good quality, but not truly expensive. Not luxurious. Ichigo supposed that if Byakuya had tried to take Hisana to some place fancy, the sort of place the Head of House Kuchiki would be expected to be found, she would refuse.

As their lunches were served, Byakuya and Hisana spoke in low voices, Ichigo catching only snatches of their conversation. Byakuya was worried about Hisana's living situation, and Hisana was assuring him that there was no problem.

Rukia stole a pickled radish from his bento.

"You have your own," hissed Ichigo. He feinted toward the picked radish on her bento, and as she moved to protect, stole a piece of salmon instead.

"Manners," said Hisana, voice sharp.

Rukia said, "Manners, Ichigo," and slapped him on the shoulder. "This is a restaurant. We have to be proper." And she ate her pickled radish in a refined, genteel way.

With an extra furrow of his brow, Ichigo let her know she'd pay for that later. But for the moment, there was eating.

Watching them, Byakuya said, "You do have table manners."

Swallowing before she spoke, Rukia said, "District 78 lacks class, but we do have chopsticks, and wherever you go, crumbs on the table are a waste, and no one likes to see the inside of others' mouths as they chew."

That seemed to mark the start of an interrogation, because Byakuya said, "It's unusual to get this far in from an outer district without connections."

"We walked," said Rukia. "And sometimes we ran."

Byakuya looked blank, and Hisana looked skeptical. Hisana said, "Ichigo-kun, how old are you?"

That was a dangerous question. He knew too much about the shinigami arts and Seireitei to be a recently arrived soul, but if anyone cared to check, they'd find he didn't have an established record in Rukongai. An elaborate lie to explain both would be both notable and disprovable. "I'm not even sure. Pretty young, by our standards. But I'd rather not talk about it."

Ichigo figured that would end it, but Byakuya said, "You look very much like Lieutenant Shiba Kaien."

"Really," said Ichigo, disinterested.

Rukia said, "Ichigo and I wish to become Shinigami. We came here because we heard that entrance exams are held more often in the lower Districts."

Byakuya said, "You both feel as if you should pass. The next entrance exam is in two weeks. Simply go to the gates of Seireitei and they will direct you." He paused. "Do you have family names?"

"Nah," said Ichigo.

Rukia looked to Hisana.

"Kotsuki," said Hisana. "Konso took most of my memories of the living world, but I remember that."

"Freezing moon?" said Rukia, thinking she must be guessing the kanji wrong. But no, they were the Kanji on the sign over Hisana's shop.

"Correct."

Rukia and Ichigo exchanged a look, thinking of her zanpakutou, and how its first dance was Tsukishiro, white moon, and thinking of Ichigo's zanpakutou as well, Zangetsu, _slaying moon._

Rukia said, "Would you like it if I-" she stopped, unable to say it.

Hisana said, "I would be pleased if you used the name. It's the name you were born to. It is yours as much as mine."

"I would like that," Rukia said, voice strained, face carefully blank. Ichigo leaned over, bumping his shoulder against hers as if by accident.

When that wasn't enough, Ichigo took the attention off her. He said, "I oughta make a name up though, right? Something cool."

Hisana smiled, seeing, perhaps, what he was doing. "Nothing juvenile that you'll regret later."

"Of course not," said Ichigo. "Something four syllables long, maybe, so it'll be a nice solid six-count when you say my whole name."

Recovering, Rukia said, "Honoirobaka Ichigo."

"That's a six syllable family name. Didn't you hear me?" he said, ignoring that it meant orange idiot.

"Kurimi Ichigo," said Rukia. Creamy strawberry.

"You don't get how to count, do you?" He rubbed his temples, sighing. "District 78 just does not offer a decent education." He held up a finger. "This many is one." He held up a second finger. "This many is two." He held up a third finger.

She elbowed him hard in the side.

"Oof," went Ichigo, bending over, tip of his nose brushing his rice.

Rukia said, "Don't worry, Hisana nee-san, Kuchiki-sama, I'll make this idiot choose something good."

When they'd finished their meals, and had dessert besides, Byakuya insisted on escorting Hisana back to her shop. He still had screens to look at.

Byakuya pulled up alongside Ichigo and flicked a hand at his face.

Ichigo, conditioned by battle after battle, did what he always did when anyone other than Rukia or Chad made an unexpected movement.

He shunpoed away, hands coming up automatically into fighting position.

When his mind caught up to his body, he froze.

Byakuya did not look surprised.

Sighing, Rukia shunpoed behind Ichigo, cuffed him on the back of the head, and said, "Idiot. Talk about overreacting. You know you can't let people manipulate you like that."

She shrugged, and grinned impishly at Byakuya and Hisana. "We're gonna do pretty well at Shino Academy, right?"

Byakuya's thin, bloodless, nearly familiar curving of his lips said it all.

#

#

Byakuya and Hisana spoke in low voices in her shop, Rukia and Ichigo having been sent upstairs.

Byakuya said, "Rukia seems much like you on the surface, but I suspect that she has more in common with that rapscallion she's friends with."

"They remind me of street-toughs," she said. A moment later, "They are street toughs."

Byakuya said, "They have high reiatsu and are in control of it, especially Rukia, and they have good posture, good balance. They're light on their feet, and when they shunpoed, they followed each others' movements. I've little doubt that they were the lords of their neighborhood."

"And now they wish to be shinigami."

"They have talent. They'll do well, if the rapscallion can learn some discipline."

Hisana said, "I won't ask you to to protect them. Shinigami are protectors. But could you ensure that they get into appropriate Divisions when the time comes? And that they get any help they need?"

Byakuya did not speak or even nod. He did not take her hands to reassure her. But she understood.

#  
#

The courtyard was full of prospective shinigami, and their chatter made it hard to hear anything. Ichigo had made the mistake of standing behind Rukia as she signed them up at the registration table, and as they left it, Rukia handed him his ticket.

Ichigo stared at the name written on it. "The hell is this, Rukia? _Kurokento_ Ichigo?!" Kurokento. With the black sword.

"It's a wonderful name," said Rukia, preening.

"It's lame. It's something a kid would come up with."

She hit him. "It's a beautiful, elegant name, you'll learn to recognize it easily, and it's four syllables, just like you asked."

"I'm getting it changed," said Ichigo, making a bee-line for the registration table.

She grabbed him by the back of his yukata. "Nope, too late. You're already in the system. Trying to change it now will just draw attention and make them dislike you."

"They'll do it if I say a bitch chose it to embarrass me."

Rukia said, "You're not the only one with an embarrassing name, idiot. Kotsuki? Freezing moon? You're joining me in this."

"So that's what you're after."

She laughed diabolically. "You thought you'd get to hold it over me, didn't you? You were waiting for the right opportunity. But now we're on the same footing, _Kurokento_ Ichigo."

A quick fight ensued, ending in a mutual headlock, each with an arm wrapped tight around the other's neck, bringing them almost cheek to cheek.

Turning his head, Ichigo whispered, "It's a little on the nose."

Rukia whispered back, breath hot on his ear. "Lots of people have names that fit. It's part of destiny. Besides, you already know about your zanpakutou. _Because you've dreamed of it_ , right? So it makes sense."

Kurokento. As embarrassing as it might be, he also sort of liked it. And it would be easy to recognize. He sighed in defeat.

The entrance exam wasn't anything. A woman looked at him to see if his reiatsu was high enough, only a flicker of an eyebrow giving her surprise away as she examined him. He was hiding his reiatsu, but even what he wasn't hiding was substantial. At an old man's direction, he did a few squats, push-ups and lunges to prove his body mostly worked. Then a different woman asked him a few simple questions to make sure he wasn't too mentally challenged or too obviously a psychopath. Ichigo answered them naturally, wondering how Kenpachi and Korutsuchi had snuck through.

But once the entrance exam was over, and all the rejects had been sent away, the placement test began, and that was exhaustive.

While Rukia went to a different rotation, Ichigo took a written test. The first bit was about finding out whether he knew how to read. It proceeded from there to law, history, and science, the science of Soul Society being awful different from what he was used to. He did badly on all of those, but did as well as possible on the few questions about Outer-Rukongai, and intentionally missed a few questions about Seireitei and shinigami.

After the bewilderingly unfamiliar science section, math would've been a relief if he hadn't been obligated to bomb everything but basic arithmetic.

Then there was the test on Kido theory. He did as well on that as he could.

That was the last of the writtens. Next was a Kido demonstration. He made balls of energy, demonstrated that he could shakily use the first few Hado and Bakudo with the use of a full chant, and damaged a wall.

He answered a few questions about how he'd learned what Kido he knew, and they were impressed when he said it all came from studying a book, and from a friend who was better at studying the same book. He was vague on how long he'd been studying it.

Next was zanjutsu. His swordsmanship was good but rough, and he was used to a much longer blade besides. He'd been using a staff for long enough that, fighting with a bouken, he kept bringing one hand up to the back of the blade so he could use it like a staff.

The instructor said that was called half-swording and was usually used in close. Ichigo supposed he should study it when he got his shikai. Considering how long Zangetsu was, it'd probably be useful.

He explained that he was used to using a staff and was sent on to the Hoho examination.

The fact that he knew shunpo clearly surpassed expectations. He undershot the target several times, as if that were a tendency of his, but otherwise did things to the best of his ability, aside from the fact that he was hiding his true strength.

Hakuda was interesting. The style was a bit like Karate and a lot more like what his dad did. Ichigo's style was a mix of Karate, what he'd picked up from his dad, and what he'd figured out himself in fights.

Unfortunately, a lot of what he figured out himself worked well against local delinquents who didn't know what they were doing, but not so well against someone who did. Still, his striking and trapping were good, but his grappling was weak. The examiner proved it, and told Ichigo to watch his guard more and commit either more or less.

He popped out into a little lobby, waited 15 minutes, filled out some paperwork, waited 15 more minutes, and was given a bouken and a canvas bag that held a small money purse with 10 Kan in it, toiletries, a water bottle, writing materials, and five folded uniforms. He was given his class sheet and told he'd be getting his books later.

After his mandatory shower (a shower, not a bathhouse, that surprised him) to get the sweat off, he was directed out of the testing area and into Shino Academy.

In its main lobby, he found Rukia on a bench, dressed in Shino Academy's uniform. She looked a lot better in it than he did. It looked bad on guys. Yukata and Kimono were fine, but he was wearing a freaking blue _skirt_.

Sighting him, seeing his expression, Rukia smirked and said, "Feeling feminine enough, Ichigo?""Shut up." He took the seat next to her. "Skirts aren't feminine here."

"It's not a skirt. It's a hakama. Just like a shihakusho. The legs are separate."

"It looks like a skirt."

"What's wrong with skirts?"

Ichigo said, "It doesn't have pockets. Why doesn't it have pockets?"

"You're supposed to use your interior breast pocket."

"Bah. It's tiny." He pulled his folded class schedule out of it. Ichigo said, "I've got Math 1.5, Science 1, Language Arts 6, Law 1, History 1, Tactics and Duties 1. Then on the practical side there's Kido 2, Hoho 7, Hakuda 6 and Zanjutsu 5."

"What did you choose for your Edification?"

Basically an elective. "Music. You?"

"Art, of course."

"Your poor sensei."

She slapped him. "I've also got Math 2, Science 2, Language Arts 6, Law 2, History 2, and Tactics and Duties 1."

Ichigo stared. She knew quite well that she'd been supposed to bomb all the academics but language arts. But apparently she hadn't been able to restrain herself from answering some questions right.

Rukia said, "It's fortunate I got into Hisana nee-san's books or I would've done as badly as you."

Ichigo scowled. What kind of genius was she making herself out to be? "And practicals?"

"Kido 7, Hoho 7, Zanjutsu 5 and Hakuda 5."

Kido 7. The highest level offered. She was really leaning hard on her 'self-study,' of that Kido book they'd liberated. Ichigo said, "We don't share many classes."

"Oh, is the strawberry going to miss me?" She stuck out her lower lip.

"Like hell. I'm just worried someone will accidentally step on you, midget."

"So you are worried."

He scoffed.

Rukia said, "We have the same homeroom. Advanced Class 1."

"Good thing too. You'd never make any friends without me."

Her stomp hurt his foot more than normal, and Ichigo realized that was a sensitive area. He said, "You're too intimidating, is the problem. People back way from your midgety..." He trailed off. 'Perfection,' had been on the tip of his tongue, but if he said that, she'd never let him live it down. "Midgetness."

She must've gathered what he'd intended to say, because, mollified, she tugged his sleeve to make him come with her as they 'explored' Shino Academy.

#

#

Rukia approached the residential manager she knew from experience to be understanding of people from Outer-Rukongai, since he was one himself.

She found him in a hallway, checking on rooms.

She bowed, tugging on Ichigo's shirt to make sure he bowed with her. "Kinobara-sama. I am Kotsuki Rukia, newly assigned to Advanced Class 1. Behind me is Kurokento Ichigo, also newly assigned to Advanced Class 1."

"And?" said Kinobara.

"Kinobara-sama. Ichigo and I grew up together in Outer-Rukongai. We're not used to sharing rooms with people we don't trust. There've been a couple times," she glared at Ichigo, "When this idiot attacked someone who woke him up."

"I didn't attack anyone," said Ichigo, playing along, red with indignation. "I just incapacitated him. Nothing wrong with that. He was fine after a few weeks."  
Ignoring him, Rukia said, "So I wonder if Ichigo and I could share a room."

Kinobara said, "Are you married?"

"To this midget?" said Ichigo.

Rukia gagged.

Ichigo said, "Oi, isn't that a little over the top?"

Rukia said, "Vomiting would've been over the top. Gagging is subtle and understated.

"Like hell."

Kinobara said, "Is that a no?"

"It's a no, Kinobara-sama," she said sweetly.

"We have a student code of conduct."

"A wise and wonderful document," said Rukia. "We'll be sure to follow it most strictly."

Kinobara spoke with unusual bluntness. "If you get pregnant, we'll kick you out."

As Ichigo's eyes bugged out, Rukia said, "No danger of that, Kinobara-sama. I doubt Ichigo is capable."

"Hey!"

Rukia said, "He's still quite young. And stupid."

Ichigo ignored that to glare at Kinobara. "Physically, we're barely into puberty."

"That hasn't stopped everyone," said Kinobara, mildly. "Kotsuki-chan, you sincerely wish to room with Kurokento-kun?"

"Yes," said Rukia.

"And you, Kurokento-kun? Do you wish to room with Kotsuki-chan?"

Ichigo said, "Rukia is insufferable. If you put her with anyone else, they'll be demanding a room change by day two. It'll be easier for you to put us together."

Kinobara's eyes narrowed. "Kurokento-kun. Do you wish to room with Kotsuki-chan?"

"Err, yeah," said Ichigo, realizing he had to be direct. "Definitely. If it's not too much trouble. I could owe you a small favor someday. If that's okay to offer."

"Hmm," said Kinobara. "Should I take it as given that if you aren't placed together you'll frequently sneak into each other's rooms?"

Rukia said, "We would never intentionally disrespect the Shino Academy's rules. If one of us ever was in the other's room, it would be a thoughtless result of-"

"Yes," said Ichigo.

Kinobara-san handed a brass key to each of them. "Room 402. Don't make me regret this. If the surrounding students complain about moaning keeping them awake, I'll separate you two."

They took the keys, each bright pink, Ichigo more with anger than embarrassment.

Rukia pulled on Ichigo's shirt to make him bow with her and said, "Thank you, Kinobara-sama," before tugging Ichigo down the hallway before he could explode.

Ichigo said, "How can he even say that to people who look as young we do? Pervert."

"We might look young, but we're not that young."

Ichigo figured he was almost 17, which was still too young, in his opinion, but it wasn't a subject he wanted to talk about with Rukia. Though there was another subject.

"You know this will start rumors. So what was that about?"  
Rukia said, "You talk in your sleep."

"I do not."

"I don't want any other students hearing your nightmares."

The potential seriousness of that shut him up.

"It was fine with the others in Rukongai. A simple Kido took care of that, and there was no way they'd break it, and even if they did, or I forgot one night, they wouldn't recognize what you mumbled. But here..."

At Shino Academy lots of people might recognize a mumbled 'Aizen.'

Ichigo said, "Plus, your snoring always drowned me out."

"I do not snore!"

Ichigo said, "True. You sound more like a horse neighing." She didn't do it very often. Mostly when she had the sniffles. But she did do it. "And you talk sometimes too."

"About serious things?"

He snorted. "Mostly you go on about rabbits." Sleeping Rukia was a bit like conscious Inoue. Though she also said Ichigo's name a lot when she talked in her sleep, which come to think of it, was also a bit like conscious Inoue.

#

#

Room 402 would've been large for one person, and was decent-sized for two. He'd expected futons, and was surprised and puzzled to see western style beds. Tall ones, with drawers underneath. Pulling a drawer out revealed that each bed was built on a combination dresser and cabinet. Two of the drawers had combination locks.

They each had a desk and a tall, narrow bookcase. They each had a window in the back wall, a sword stand and an oil lamp, even though Ichigo had seen light bulbs in Rukongai.

They each also had a Kido lamp. Powering those was probably supposed to be a part of their Kido training, but Ichigo lit each with a wave of his hand. All it needed was directed reiatsu.

Well over half the floor space was empty, and rolled exercise and meditation mats against the wall showed what the space was intended for.

A thin dark line on the floor separated the two halves.

Reading his expression, Rukia said, "We can get a screen for privacy."

Ichigo nodded. "I'm surprised they give this much space to students."

"Seireitei has plenty of space. They kicked most of the businesses out into Inner-Rukongai centuries ago and have never quite replaced all those people. Besides, they couldn't possibly offer any less than this to Noble kids. Though most of the really high Noble kids just go straight into Divisions."

"You've been doing a lot of reading," said Ichigo. A reminder that she should keep her knowledge unremarkable for her supposed background.

Rukia said, "If you'd been paying attention, you would've heard Kuchiki-sama say just that to Hisana nee-san when she was worried about us."

"Really?"

"Yes. If not in so many words."

He shrugged and moved to the drawers beneath the bed. He put his four spare uniforms into the drawer, along with the yukata he'd been wearing when they found Hisana, and the yukata Byakuya had bought him.

He went off to find out how tolerable the shared dorm restroom was.

Rukia hopped slightly to get up on the tall bed.

#  
#

Ideally, they would seem like talented but unextraordinary students. Given that that was probably impossible, they'd settle for looking like prodigies. But normal prodigies, rather than truly freakish talents like Toushiro, Gin, or Kurosaki Ichigo. Being noticed by Aizen was inevitable, but they didn't want him to think they really mattered.

They took their seats for their first class, homeroom, well ahead of when class was scheduled to start. Their sensei wasn't even there yet.

Rukia was nervous. That was stupid – she was an experienced, powerful shinigami, and Shino Academy should hold no fears for her – but it was true. The last time she had attended Shino Academy, she'd been lonely and sad, all but abandoned by Renji, and Byakuya's offer had been a welcome escape.

And the other half of her, the half that had never been a shinigami, the Outer-Rukongai brat, had no confidence or experience to draw upon.

And Ichigo was talking to the guy in the next seat. She didn't know how that had happened. She was sitting rigidly and properly at her desk, and Ichigo was scowling and speaking far too casually with a handsome student with dark brown hair, and the student was grinning back, speaking animatedly.

One of Ichigo's more startling talents was his ability to scowl in a distinctly friendly way.

"Nah," Ichigo scowled, "Inuzuri. District 78."

"Really?" said the student. "Your reiatsu is well-controlled."

Ichigo grabbed Rukia's shoulder and pulled her halfway across her desk. "You can thank the slave-driver here. Shinigami this, shinigami that, ever since we met."

Rukia suppressed the urge to elbow Ichigo in the chest. Did he have to introduce her in such an embarrassing manner?

Ichigo said, "Rukia, meet Nakamura Ita. Nakamura, this is Kotsuki Rukia."

Rukia bowed at her desk.

"We go back a ways. We came here together."

Rukia said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Nakamura-san."

"Likewise, Kotsuki-san."

Ichigo said, "I take it you ain't from Outer-Rukongai."

"No. I was born in Seireitei. My mother is the 18th Seat of Division 8, and my father is an unseated Officer of the same Division."

"Isn't that kind of rare? Shinigami having kids? From what I heard."

"Yes, but Captain Kyouraku is more tolerant than most."  
"Really?"

"To the extent that my mother complains about his matchmaking."

"Tch. I'll avoid that. You gonna join 8?"

"I would rather not," said Nakamura. "I'm at the age where I need to stretch my wings and find my own place in the Gotei."

"Your parents embarrass you enough without you being in their Division, huh?"  
Nakamura winced. "That is not inaccurate."

Rukia frowned. Ichigo got along well with others, mostly, but he wasn't usually so outgoing. Was he attempting to make friends since it was the first day of school? She'd supposed they would keep to themselves to avoid giving anything away, but having friends was an important form of power. Maybe he thought they should try to be influential.

And suddenly a blue-haired woman who looked about human 18 was drawn into the conversation, along with her black haired friend. A third person, and fourth person, gathering around Ichigo's desk, talking to each other a lot more than to Ichigo, who wasn't saying much, but he was still undoubtedly at the center of it.

That was familiar. Almost nostalgic. Despite all his scowling, or perhaps because of how he scowled, Ichigo was approachable. Charismatic. He was the youngest looking student, besides herself, yet people flocked around him. Just as it had been in his human high school, so it was in Shino Spirit Academy. Already.

Rukia checked the clock. There were still nearly 15 minutes to go. Most everyone had come very early, to ensure they wouldn't be late for the first day. A polite, neutral expression on her face, she listened to the students. She'd missed introductions, but the blue-haired girl called the black-haired girl 'Yoko-chan.' They were comparing class placements with Nakamura, who was sheepishly proud as he pointed to his assignments to Kido 3 and Zanjutsu 4.

Yoko-chan asked Ichigo about his class assignments, and Ichigo dropped his class list on the desk.

The students bent to look, eyes widening. Nakamura said, "Hoho 7, Kurokento-san. That's amazing."

Ichigo shrugged. "I'm good with shunpo. You should see the midget's schedule though."

Reluctantly, face composed, Rukia set her schedule next to Ichigo's.

"Kido 7," said Yoko. "Midori-chan has been taking Kido lessons for years and years and she only got put in Kido 4."

The dark haired girl, who must be Midori, nodded.

"You must be a genius," said Midori, off put.

No surprise there. People found genius more palatable when it came from guys. Brilliant girls were uppity. Ichigo would be popular, and she'd be his strange, tiny, bitchy friend who'd somehow convinced him to bunk with her.

Something clicked.

"Oh my," Rukia said, hand over her mouth as she tittered. "You praise me too highly. The examiner was generous, I think."

"Oh no," said Midori. "Your skills must be very great."

Rukia said, "While Ichigo-kun hunted, I would always stay behind and practice Kido. It is only because of his hard work that I have any skill at all." She looked at their class lists. "History 5, Yoko-chan. That's very impressive. You must've studied hard."

They chattered, Rukia remembering how it worked, almost beginning to enjoy herself, Ichigo's expression growing more thunderous with every minute.

Eventually, he broke in. "I need to talk to Rukia for a minute." He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of her seat, pulled her to the edge of the classroom.

Leaning in, Ichigo hissed, "Why the hell are you acting?"

"What's wrong with trying to get along well?"

"Nothing. But that innocent school girl act is creepy."

"It worked before," said Rukia.

"It was creepy then too."

"I didn't realize you were so easily frightened."

Ichigo said, "I'm not the one who's scared."

Rukia flinched, and Ichigo looked deep into her eyes. Rukia had given him plenty of painfully sincere and much needed advice. He could return the favor. "The midget who immobilized me when we first met: she was cold, reserved, harsh, demanding, and never less than a pain in the ass."

"Thanks," said Rukia, glaring.

"And there's no one braver. No one more trustworthy. No one I'd rather be here with. No one. Absolutely no one. You should let other people get to know that woman too. Even if it's hard."

Rukia was frozen.

Ichigo led them back to their desks in time for class to start.

#  
#

Classes, classes, lunch, classes, study hall with homeroom, dinner, and a timed 7 minute shower, separate shower rooms for each gender. Rukia didn't have to fake being a little overwhelmed. It was an overwhelming day, even if it was her second time doing it. It was evening but she was ready to sleep.

They were walking along with the three people who had somehow become Ichigo's group easy as breathing. Yoko, Midori, and Nakamura.

Having exhausted the topic of the dining hall's adequacy, they were speaking of Tactics and Duties 1, the only class it was impossible to test out of and so the only class they all shared.

"The sensei was so long-winded," Midori said.

Yoko nodded. Nakamura said, "I thought I was going to die of boredom."

Rukia said, "Nuance is important. He laid out the whole structure of the class." The lecture had made her nostalgic, reminding her of her early days guiding Ichigo. "If you cannot pay attention yourself, you may copy my notes."

Nakamura looked slightly affronted, but Yoko and Midori exchanged amused glances. Someone so small being so prissy and abrasive was almost amusing. And they couldn't help respecting her forcefulness.

Ichigo said, "Are there any words amid all those doodles? Careful, Nakamura, you'll ask for her notes and you'll get a comic of a bunny's adventures fighting Hollows."

Rukia said, "Pictures and diagrams help people remember and understand, you close-minded fool."

Ichigo reached into her bag and pulled out her notebook, holding it high and turning away so she couldn't snatch it from him. He turned to Rukia's notes on Tactics and Duties.

The other three leaned in.

There were plenty of words, but there were also drawings of a cute, bipedal bunny in a shihakusho carrying out shinigami duties. Performing Konso, attacking Hollows from behind, standing alert at guard duty.

Midori said, "So cute, Kotsuki-chan."

"It helps me remember and pay attention," said Rukia, blushing.

Ichigo said, "Don't believe her. She's just got bunnies on the brain."

Rukia kicked his shin, took the notebook from him, closed it, hit him with its edge, and replaced it in her bag. "See if I let you borrow my notes."

"I took my own," said Ichigo. "Without the crappy drawings."

They reached Room 402. Ichigo said, "This is us," and unlocked the door.

Rukia bowed, saying, "We look forward to see you tomorrow at breakfast, Nakamura-san, Yoko-chan, Midori-chan.

They stared as Ichigo opened the door. It was very clear that the two were rooming together, and that was strange. The looks weren't as taken aback as they would be if Rukia and Ichigo were more developed, but still.

Ichigo said, "The midget and I are used to sharing a hut or a tent or whatever, so we asked Kinobara if we could share a room. He said okay. Later." Tugging Rukia inside, he shut the door.

Flopping on his bed, Ichigo said, "I'm so damn glad we don't look a little older."

Facing away while they changed into sleeping clothes wasn't quite automatic. When she'd slept in his closet, she'd changed in his closet. In Outer-Rukongai, they hadn't had separate clothing for sleeping in. And Hisana had a restroom.

Still, it was accomplished without much trouble, and Rukia hopped up on her bed while he was still facing the other way. That she had to jump a little to get on her bed was a fact she intended to keep secret as long as possible.

Ichigo turned out the lights and slipped into his own bed.

As they listened to each other's breathing, Rukia admitted that her desire to share a room with Ichigo had very little to do with practicality.

She felt so very exposed. A speck of ice on a frying pan. The bearer of a great secret. The literal bearer of a great weapon. The greatest secrets of her life, the greatest events, the greatest fears, were things she could only allude to with one person. The one who shared so many of those fears and secrets.

She wondered if Ichigo felt the same way. She wondered if her breathing was a comfort to him.

She slept.

:::

Sentan Hakuja is the Kido used in canon by Ichimaru and Aizen to get immediately from Central 46 to Sokyouku Hill. In this fic, characters will use it with some frequency.

Canonically, Ichigo doesn't tease much. His and Rukia's exchanges aren't quite like this. But teasing comes naturally to me as a writer, and the shallow, performative yet authentic anger/peevishness that Ichigo actually has is not something I understand.

It's unclear to me when, canonically, Kisuke hid the Hougyoku in Rukia. But it is sometime before she came to Karakura. I had intended it to be clear in chapter one that, in this fic, it is already hidden in her.

Yes, this is Ichi/Ruki. I don't do much else. I never took seriously the idea of Ichigo ending up with someone else until suddenly, it had happened. That may mean I'm thick.

I'm enjoying the fic recommendations some people are putting in their reviews. Thanks. And yes, I will update Soul Struck soon.


	4. Chapter 4

**Everything is Different Upon Review: 4**

After months of schooling, long days of polishing skills and taking endless notes, they finally had a long weekend, their first with passes, accompanied by lectures about what parts of Seireitei to visit and what parts to stay out of. Going to a Division was a bad idea. Shinigami didn't like it when academy students acted like they were shinigami already. Entering bars was also a very, very bad idea.

So Ichigo and Rukia went with Nakamura, Yoko and Midori to the grand gardens, and then to two historical monuments. Then they made their excuses and left, moving far more rapidly than the others could.

Rukia had pretended to study the map earlier, and Ichigo actually had studied it. They didn't get lost on their way to the 10th Division, though Ichigo had no idea why Rukia wanted to go there.

They did not enter the building itself. Instead, they stopped on a building that overlooked its yard, which was unusually green and grassy. Not to mention large. Practically a park.

The shinigami in it were drilling with less order than he would've expected, but a lot of enthusiasm. He could clearly hear the yells even from their roof.

Ichigo cast questioning glance at Rukia.

Rukia said, "I've been thinking about that Goat Chin guy. What you said about him."

Eyes narrowing, Ichigo settled in to watch.

After half an hour, a man in white Captain's Haori came out into the yard. He was tall, black-haired and broad-shouldered. He spoke to some of his shinigami, and even sparred with two at once without taking out his zanpakutou. He laughed when they hit the ground.

They weren't close, but Ichigo would recognize that booming laugh anywhere. That was his father down there, Captain of Division 10.

A surprisingly simple answer to the question of who his father really was.

Rukia handed him a spyglass. A seldom used piece of equipment, but still part of their kit.

Ichigo looked through, turning the dial until his father's young face came into focus.

Rukia said, "Generalist Divisions like the 6th and 13th have little to do with each other except at the level of high-ranking officers. A shinigami might go decades without seeing the Captain of a different division up close."

Which was why, along with the age difference, she hadn't recognized him.

Rukia said, "Sometimes I wonder about Goat Chin, and how he ended up living there, but maybe we'll never know."

"Maybe. Hey. How long are Captains usually Captains for?"  
"Don't you pay any attention in class? Captains Ukitake and Kyouraku have been Captains for nearly a thousand years, and Unohana Retsu for even longer. But from what I hear about this bozo, he might not last more than 45."

So that was her estimate of when Isshin had left Soul Society. About 45 years in the future. 20 years before he'd been born. If felt like a lot of time. There were still 57 years before all the shit had gone down. It felt like a long time. He wondered if it would be.

Ichigo said, "Seeing real shinigami train is nice and all, but I'm getting bored."

She nodded, and they went back to the Academy.

#  
#

Graduating in one year would've made too many waves. Three was unworkable; they could only hold back for so long without it looking like they were holding back. Two, then, was the happy medium, and the second year was nearly up.

They had been a very productive two years for Ichigo. He'd improved his reiatsu control to a level that Rukia termed acceptable, become basically competent in Kido, and polished his hakuda, zanjutsu and shunpo to a razor's edge.

And there was the book learning. Ichigo had always been a good student, and unlike a lot of Outer-Rukongai recruits, he'd come into the Academy highly literate and comfortable with geometry and algebra, even if he'd hidden that fact. But it was tough competing with students who, in many cases, were decades older than him, and were already well-versed in Soul Society's history, law and science. Tough, as in impossible.

But bookwise, all you really had to do was pass Tactics and Duties 4 and the Graduation Exam, and the bar for that wasn't high. The Gotei was for the smart and the stupid alike, and it was more important how you held a sword than a pen.

For Rukia, the time had been not useless, but less useful. She already had polish, and that being the case, hiding her true skill level while appearing to do her best had been difficult, especially that first year. But she threw herself into the academics, and into becoming ever more and more perfect at the basics, and she spent a lot of time working one-on-one with the Academy's Kido experts, focusing on the speed, efficiency and accuracy of her chantless casting.

Ichigo's power level had grown, approaching about how he remembered it being when he'd first gained shikai. Rukia had grown by a surprising margin, and they spoke in vague allusions of the fact that Rukia, unlike Ichigo, had merged with her younger self, and what that might mean.

But there was one last thing to do before they applied for graduation.

They were in one of the private meditation rooms, dim but not dark, lit by a brazier in each corner, Ichigo sitting cross-legged on the floor, Rukia on her knees in Seiza. They each held the asauchi they'd selected.

Rukia had chosen an asauchi as long as she knew her shikai to be. Ichigo had chosen one an asauchi as long as he knew his bankai to be.

Ichigo took longer than Rukia to enter his Inner World. He still wasn't as practiced at it.

The old man was not as he'd always been. Zangetsu and his Inner Hollow had combined shortly before the Hougyoku had sent him back, and de-aged him in the process, and his powers remained combined.

It was only the bankai form that he'd seen combined before. Outside bankai, it was a one-armed man with black antlers and white hair, his features a cross between old man Zangetsu and Ichigo himself, and he was dressed in white with black trim.

Ichigo didn't have bankai, not anymore, not yet, had never achieved it against _this_ Zangetsu, though Zangetsu was still its name. He doubted that he had a Hollow mask, but he didn't know for sure. He hadn't tried, and wouldn't until he was somewhere where he knew for an absolute fact that there were no watching eyes, and he couldn't imagine where that might be. Not even the old training area beneath Sokyouku Hill was secure enough.

"Yo," said Ichigo.

"You finally ready to call my name?"

"Yes."

"Good," said Zangetsu. "I'm tired of staying cooped up in here, pretending we don't speak."

Nodding, Ichigo returned his attention to his exterior world and said, "Protect, Zangetsu!"

The asauchi changed form, shifting into the shikai he'd gained when the two aspects of his power had merged, quite similar to his original, but the blade had a lip that formed a partial guard for his hand.

Next to him, Rukia was holding the white blade of Sode no Shirayuki, which looked just as he remembered it.

Ichigo said, "How is she?"  
"She is more herself."

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know yet," said Rukia. "But attaining shikai has increased my strength, as expected."

Ichigo closed his eyes, trying to sense himself. Having family summoned Zangetsu, his reiryoku was about where it'd been when he'd fought Ikkaku, though his skills and control were leagues beyond that. He should be able to beat most seated officers, but Captains were beyond him.

Physical immaturity was a greater handicap than he'd once realized. Meaning Toushiro was an even greater genius than he'd known.

He drew his reiatsu in. Hid his reiryoku. He'd never admit it, but he thought of himself as one of those flowers that closed in the day and only opened at night. Normally he kept himself so tightly compressed that utilizing his full strength would take a moment. But having shikai, he was having a hard time returning his apparent strength to its previous level.

Next to him, Rukia's reiatsu fell. Not to as low as it had been before. That they had shikai would be known publicly, so of course she had to show appropriate growth.

Feeling silly, he realized that he got to show growth too.

He breathed out, relaxing slightly, and any observer would've pegged his reiryoku at the level of a 15th Seat or so. Even that was like living in a straight jacket, but it was a straight jacket he was used to.

He shunpoed a couple times across the room and made a few large balls of Kido energy until he was sure he was used to it.

"Ready?" said Rukia.

"Course."

#  
#

Attendance at the Graduation Dance was mandatory. Rukia and Ichigo went together because that was a hell of a lot easier than anything else. They were the only ones from their homeroom who were graduating. Besides, Rukia still looked 12 to 14, while most of their peers looked as if they were in their late teens and up. No way in hell was Ichigo letting her go with any developed man who wanted to ask out an adolescent.

Dancing wasn't mandatory, and Ichigo would've refused to do so and told Rukia to go find someone else if not for one fact. Rukia's release command was 'dance.' That made refusing to dance a personal insult, and not a humorous one. It would be rejecting a major part of what she was.

Rukia looked from Ichigo to the dance floor. It was well-occupied. About an even mix of men and women. Since there were more male than female shinigami, the male shinigami were allowed to invite others. Mostly girls in younger years. Though a number of the male shinigami were dancing with other male shinigami. Ichigo recalled that that sort of thing had been more accepted in ancient Japan, before western sexual norms had come in.

The style of dancing wasn't western, but it was closer to that than what he knew of old Japanese dancing. Soul Society seemed superficially like Edo Japan, but, he'd noticed, it had its own things.

Rukia looked back to Ichigo.

Unlike Ichigo, she wasn't thinking about how silly and half-baked this tradition was, or how the rich shinigami were using the occasion to show off their money in fancy yukata and kimono, and that the two of them were just barely formal enough in the yukata Byakuya had bought them two years ago.

She was thinking that she wanted to dance, and she was actually admiring the gaudy, tacky decorations.

Ichigo went to the drinks table and poured himself a bowl of sake`.

"Ichigo?"

He chugged it and wiped his chin. The fumes were clearing out his ears.

"Ichigo, you're a minor!"

"No I'm not." He was nearly 19. The Japanese drinking age was 20, but no one actually paid attention to that. He poured himself a second bowl and drank it more slowly, Rukia watching him with confusion and worry.

By the end of his second small bowl of sake, dancing didn't seem like such a bad idea anymore.

He took her hand and nodded toward the dance floor. The music was enka, but he'd had little choice but to develop a greater appreciation for that.

"Ichi-"

"Come on."

After only a moment's hesitation, she grinned broadly and tugged him onto the dance floor, holding hands, as they were supposed to. Rukia was great, he could tell. Maybe not technically, but she was so graceful, so smooth, so perfectly in time to the music, and her smile was infectious.

By the time they'd been twice around the room, Ichigo was having fun. Dancing lessons had been part of their Etiquette and Culture classes, but Ichigo had done poorly. The instructor had kept telling him to 'dance with his heart,' when it was his feet that were the problem, but with some sake` in him, 'dancing with his heart,' felt like good advice.

He twirled Rukia and laughed. She had on that silly, starry-eyed expression that she usually saved for Chappy and other stupid things, and he was determined to keep her looking that way the whole night.

"Are you drunk?" she shouted.

"No, I'm tipsy." He spun her again, bumped into another couple, and laughed as he regained his balance. Rukia laughed too. He didn't remember the last time he'd laughed so much. Why had he waited so long to give sake` a try? Sake` was good. Sake` was amazing. Almost as amazing as dancing.

Rukia fit him. She was too short, but that was perfect. The thing she was looking at in that silly, starry-eyed way was him. He'd never felt so big, so proud, so worthwhile. He wanted her to look at him like that forever.

#

Ichigo woke with a slight headache, but nothing that could be called a hangover. He hadn't had that much sake`, and Rukia, who had decades of experience with alcohol, had made sure he'd eaten food and drunk water.

Rukia. He turned over, saw her curled up in her own bed. After they'd broken the second screen Hisana had gifted them, they'd given up dividing the room like that, so he had a good view of her. He was pretty sure that below the covers, she was clutching the stuffed white rabbit she thought he didn't know about.

She'd caught, killed, skinned and stuffed the rabbit herself, which was a little creepy, but very Rukia. She was a mess of contradictions. She was serious and silly. She was calm and controlled, and she had a short temper. She was arrogant and she was insecure. She hid her heart, and she speechified from it like no one else he knew. She had a natural sophistication that he was sure had predated her induction as a Kuchiki, and she was crude and aggressive. She was obsessed with her vision of 'cute,' and she was as bloody-minded as any other Outer-Rukongai brat.

Ichigo himself was no stranger anymore to killing animals to make use of their corpses.

Ichigo crept out of bed. It was early morning, and the light filtering through the window was dim and gray. He rested his hands against the chilly window glass until his hands grew cool.

He loomed over Rukia, who was smiling in her sleep. It sparked a warmth in his chest, and he put his chill hands on her neck.

Rukia shrieked as she shot up in bed. Ichigo took a foot right to mouth and hit the floor, cursing.

"Wahahaha!" cried Rukia, understanding the situation as soon as she'd shaken the sleep from her brain. "You thought you'd play a trick on me, but I played it on you instead."

"Kicking me is not a trick," Ichigo said, getting to his feet, one hand covering his mouth. "It's gratuitous violence."

"You're just pissed I won."

"You didn't-"

"Less talking, more getting ready. We've got Division interviews."

"I know," said Ichigo, letting his hand fall from his mouth. "I'm the one who woke you for them."

Rukia looked satisfied. "A split lip, Ichigo! I got you good."

"Shut up and turn around and get dressed. We've got Division interviews." He turned to his own bed, took off his night shirt, which was an actual cotton shirt, just like back home, and opened a drawer, pulling out a fresh academy uniform, hearing Rukia doing the same behind him.

Rukia said, "What did you touch me with anyway?"

"My hands."

An instant later, he was being turned around, bare chested, Rukia grabbing his hands. "Your hands, Ichigo? They shouldn't be that cold. Your circulation. We have to go to Division 4, and-"

"I cooled them on the window first, you numbnut. Now finish getting ready. You're still in your sleeping robe." He turned away, shaking out his uniform.

An absolutely ice-cold hand pressed against his back. Colder than ice. Negative 10, 20 degrees, probably. Just an instant of contact, but he was cursing again and jumping onto the bed.

"That's what you get for scaring me," laughed Rukia.

"Freaking ice-type," he hissed.

#  
#

Rukia insisted on going to Division 13. It was a good choice, and since keeping a powerful Lieutenant like Shiba Kaien alive would be a priority even if Rukia had never met him, Ichigo nodded and said nothing about it.

For Ichigo, all the options were on the table. Division 5, they'd decided, was too dangerous, and Division 9, under Tousen was dangerous as well and held less upside. They'd been tempted to dismiss Divisions 1 and 2 out of hand, but there were advantages to both. But still, it was really easy to imagine Ichigo getting court-martialed in Division 2, and Division 1 was for experienced shinigami.

3 was an interesting option. Its current Captain was an old, gray, wrinkled woman who'd come out of retirement to take up the post because there weren't enough Captain level shinigami and she was rumored to be eager to return to retirement. Ichimaru Gin should be taking over shortly enough. But just because Ichimaru Gin had been trying to kill Aizen didn't mean he'd been a triple-agent the whole time. And even if he was, he would likely still tell Aizen all about him.

Division 4 would take him as far below Aizen's notice as possible. If he went to 12, he could off Korutsuchi when he felt like it, and no one would complain since it was Korutsuchi, and he'd become the Captain of the science Division.

Besides his horror when Rukia had suggested murder, there was the fact that Korotsuchi had been on their side in the war, and that Ichigo wasn't a scientific genius.

11th was interesting. He was sure that if he went there, he could get Kenpachi to develop shikai and learn shunpo, and Zaraki Kenpachi with shikai and shunpo was a terrifying thought. But being in 11 sounded hellish to Ichigo, and there was no way he could hide his true strength while undergoing regular 'training,' with Kenpachi.

Going to 13 with Rukia sounded comfortable, but every day he was in a Division with Shiba Kaien was an invitation for someone to do a heredity test.

In the end, Ichigo selected as his first choice what he'd long sort of known he would.

#

#

The Sixth Division was honorable, stable, took excellent care of its members, and was not a popular pick for graduates at the best of times, much less with Kuchiki Byakuya-sama having just taken over, becoming the most junior Captain. So when the Academy's top graduate listed Division 6 as his number one choice, Lieutenant Suzuki Haruto was quietly pleased.

He'd always known that the dignity and class with which he carried himself would make an impact eventually. As the second oldest active Lieutenant, and the most elderly in practical terms, he cut a very distinguished figure.

Still, just because the boy was highly rated didn't mean he was a shoo in. With his reputed strength, he'd surely be seated on arrival, and he knew Byakuya-sama did not intend to seat anyone unsuitable, however skilled.

The graduate was seated cross-legged when Suzuki came in, bright orange hair in contrast to the neutral tones of the room.

"Lieutenant Suzuki," the graduate said, bowing not quite so deeply as he should've.

Seating himself, Suzuki made no comment and got the interview underway with the usual stiff pleasantries and the usual probing questions.

"Why do you wish to join the Sixth Division?"

"A few reasons," said Kurokento Ichigo. "I pretty much knew I didn't want 1, 2, 4, 11 or 12." The specialist Divisions. "Between the others it was about choosing a place that would be a good fit, but not too good of a fit. I wanted some place I would have to grow. To be honest, when I heard about the 'high standards' of Division 6, it sounded to me like a bunch of stuffy bores. Caring too much about polite speech, bowing, how to belt your hakama 'properly,' all sorts of formalities, and learning to care about that isn't what I call 'growing.'"

A tenseness to his face was the only sign of Suzuki's offense.

"But the more I was reading about it, the more I realized that the Division isn't just stricter with its shinigami, it's stricter with itself. In other Divisions, I guess that if someone higher ranked tells you to do something, you do it. But in 6th, there's more care for the individuals rights and privileges, and people don't get to go bossing others around so much just because they're better in a fight. That true?"

"Yes," said Suzuki. "While the modern system is superior to the feudal system, there is value in the old system's focus not just on the obligations of the lower to the higher, of the higher to the lower."

"See, I really like that. Otherwise it's just tyranny of the strong. Plus, I was reading in Seireitei Communications about the issues with ganglike behavior in Rukongai and sexual harassment in Divisions, and people drinking sake' on the clock, and if 'high standards' means not tolerating that ish, I'm all about high standards."

He gave Kurokento Ichigo a slight nod, even if the boy's style of speech was grating at his ears. But there was an issue he couldn't let slide. "A uniform improperly worn can inhibit of movement. I once saw a friend die because he stepped on the hem of his hakama at a critical point in a fight. And I have received reports of many more shinigami dead or missions failed because of a lack of attention to seemingly pointless detail."

Ichigo looked surprised, but sighed. "I'm naturally someone who doesn't care a lot about 'The Rules' unless I see the value to 'em, and I keep finding out after the fact that sometimes, there was a pretty good reason for a rule I was ignoring. That's part of why I think Division 6 would be a good way to stretch myself. Plus, another thing I was reading about. A lot of Divisions have ideas of fairness, of chivalry, of fighting for pride. But Division 6 has a reputation for 'not messing around.' If you have overwhelming force, use it. If you have an unfair advantage, use that too. Just do you duty, and base your pride in that."

Suzuki nodded again. That was indeed one of Division 6's philosophies. As the previous Captain Kuchiki had once so colorfully put it, 'our goal is to win battles, not pissing contests.' Byakuya-sama still struggled to live by those principles, but it was at least true that there was no other Captain in the Gotei 13 so quick to go to shikai.

Ichigo said, "Plus shunpo is my favorite of the shinigami arts and I've heard you've got one of the best Captains at that."

Suzuki acknowledged the compliment with a nod and said, "Of the shinigami arts, which is your greatest weakness?"

"The obvious answer is Kido. I'm not bad at, but it's not as natural for me as the rest."

The boy's scores bore mute testimony to that. Solid in Kido, exceptional in everything else.

"But I think for me the biggest challenge is keeping my head and not letting my resolves run away with me. I can be pretty reckless, and that's fine if it's just me, but if I'm part of a group, my being reckless could get other people killed."

That... was a very good answer, demonstrating the depth of thought to consider something other than Hakuda, Hoho, zanjutsu and Kido, and solid self-awareness as well. Suzuki said, "And your greatest strength?"

"I learn quickly, that's good. But it's probably sheer quantity of reiryoku. Not because I earned it. I just have it. Genetic lotto and all that. Skills are important, but power, power is number one. I don't have a huge amount, but more than most academy graduates, that's for sure."

Suzuki raised an eyebrow. It sounded like bragging, but it was also completely true.

He asked more questions.

#  
#

When the interviews were concluded, Suzuki conferred with Byakuya-sama over tea in a traditional room that was slightly cramped and lacked the elegance of Division 6's facilities, but was still adequate.

The first question out of Byakuya-sama's mouth was, "What did you think of Kurokento Ichigo?"

Suzuki said, "Rough, but acceptable. A thinker, and hard-headed, but those traits often turn to the good with time."

Byakuya nodded.

It was a perfectly reasonable first question. Kurokento Ichigo was the top applicant, so it was sensible to mention him first. But Suzuki had thought it odd that Byakuya-sama wasn't interviewing Kurokento himself. And Suzuki had known Byakuya-sama since Byakuya-sama had been a small child. That was why, in the privacy of his own head, he still thought of him 'as Byakuya-sama,' or even 'Young Master,' rather than Captain Kuchiki.

He could tell the difference between Byakuya-sama looking disinterested and actually being disinterested.

"You know him?" said Suzuki.

"A friend of a friend," Byakuya-sama explained. "I'm pleased to accept him into the Division without favoritism."

Suzuki wondered how an Outer-Rukongai brat came to be a friend of a friend to Kuchiki Byakuya-sama, but he knew better than to ask. Young men needed their space.

:::

I published another Bleach fic. "You Might Call it War." Check that out if you like.

I'm getting nearish to the end of what I've already written on this fic. The rate of updates will likely slow soon.

I've been playing Bleach: Brave Souls. A complete waste of time in a way that not even fanfic is, and yet…

If I could magically change Bleach however I liked, the 10th or so change I'd make is getting Yoko Kanno involved in the score for the anime.


	5. Chapter 5

**Everything Is Different Upon Review: 5**

Between Division interviews and Division assignment was a two week break. Ichigo and Rukia spoke of going to find Renji and friends, but a student's stipend was tiny, so they would wait until their six-months leave. Since they both planned to be seated on arrival, they should have plenty of money by then.

So instead, they did what they'd done on all their school breaks. Rukia went to stay with Hisana, and Ichigo, feeling like an imposition, was dragged along.

The shop was just as it had been, though closed when they arrived. Rukia could feel Hisana in her workshop, and she was pleased to detect that her elder sister's reiatsu had grown a little from when she'd last seen her 6 months ago. She'd been doing the exercises.

Rukia tugged Ichigo away from the shop. They would let Hisana work.

Ichigo spent a large portion of his saved up student stipend to buy high quality groceries as a hostess gift. Rukia bought flowers and an expensive jar of tea leaves for the same reason.

They walked the neighborhood together, seeing all the ways it had and hadn't changed since they'd last been through it. They paid a teenage girl with a large human world camera to take a picture of them beneath the giant wood chicken, Rukia much more enthused than Ichigo. It seemed to be the girl's job, but Rukia still had no idea of why there was a giant chicken.

The sun was setting when Rukia checked and sensed that Hisana was still in the workshop. That wasn't unusual. Hisana was a workaholic. But Hisana knew they were coming. Before, she'd always been eager to greet them.

Uneasy, Rukia walked around the back and pushed open the bare wooden door to the workshop. It was extremely tidy, with a place for everything and everything in its place, but not clean, with paint spattered across the floor. Hisana was securing a screen to its frame.

Rukia cleared her throat.

Hisana continued working.

Rukia said, "Hisana nee-san?"  
Hisana jerked up, looking at them with surprise. "It was today?" said Hisana, eyes widening. "It was today. I'm sorry. Come in. I don't have anything ready." She looked embarrassed yet distracted, as if she were still having difficulty emerging fully from her thoughts.  
Rukia took the groceries from Ichigo and said, "Ichigo, go buy dinner. I'm in the mood for yakisoba.

"You'll eat what I buy," said Ichigo, and he actually shunpoed out the door.

"Just a moment," said Hisana, putting her tools away. "So, how was school? Did you graduate like you wanted too?"

Rukia said, "Ichigo and I both graduated."

"Only two years," said Hisana, looking down. "Kuchiki-sama says that's very impressive."

"It's unusual," Rukia allowed. "But not unprecedented."

"And you did your Division interviews? How was that?"

Rukia was only halfway through describing her interview with Captain Ukitake when Ichigo arrived with three bowls of yakisoba. He must've shunpoed all the way to the shop and back.

Hisana led them up to the apartment. All through dinner, even as she asked the appropriate questions of Rukia and Ichigo, she still had an air of preoccupation. Rukia kept reminding her to eat.

When Ichigo said that Division 6 was his first choice and he thought the interview had gone alright, she froze.

Hisana said, "Was your interview with Kuchiki-sama?"

"Nah. His Lieutenant. Suzuki."

Hisana's eyes flew to Rukia. "I suppose I should tell you. Something unexpected has happened."

Rukia nodded, worried.

Hisana said, "You know that Kuchiki-sama was promoted to Captain of Division 6 only a few weeks ago? His grandfather retired, you see. Kuchiki-sama passed the Captain exam to take his place. It's a great point of pride to House Kuchiki that they're replacing one Captain Kuchiki with another."

"Yes..." said Rukia, wondering where Hisana was going with that.

"He was very busy, at first, with his new Division. But last week, he found time to come here. He asked me again to call him by his name, and he asked me to marry him."

Rukia wasn't surprised, but she couldn't help being shocked. Seeing it in real time, the specter of _Captain Kuchiki_ Byakuya proposing to an Outer-Rukongai Konsoed brat with an art shop was incomprehensible. It simply wasn't done, even for the minor nobility.

Hisana continued, "Kuchiki-sama said that in making Captain, he had pleased his family, and could do as he liked."

Rukia groaned softly.

Hisana said, "He's the head of one of the Four Great Noble families. I'm a Konsoed spirit from Outer-Rukongai. What success I've gained as a screen maker is nothing to them. His family would always hate me."

"Perhaps not always," said Rukia. From how some of the extended family members had spoken of Hisana, Rukia knew that Hisana had at least partially won over some of them. "Your Reiryoku has increased a little. That will help, and I can spend these two weeks tutoring you. Nobles respect strength. If you could get to the level of an unseated officer eventually… I'll tutor you these two weeks. We'll make some progress."

Hisana laughed helplessly. "A mound of sand before the onrushing tide."

"I expect I will be seated 10th or so on my arrival in my Division. Having such a sister will help you. It will assure them that your children are likely to be talented.

Ichigo opened and closed his mouth like a fish. They'd agreed on aiming for the 18th Seat, or thereabout. But he said nothing.

"Children," said Hisana, bitterly. "I abandoned you as a baby."

Rukia didn't know what to say.

Ichigo piped up, "Somehow I doubt you'll have trouble getting enough food in Kuchiki Estate."

Hisana said, "You both speak as if I'll say yes."

That surprised Rukia. "Don't you love him?"

"I do," said Hisana, with reluctance, as if the words were too large to fit through her throat.

"And he loves you, and respects you?"

"I believe so."

"Then go to his world, and carve out a place in it. You were reincarnated in District 78, and now you're a successful artist in District 4. I know that wasn't easy. You can do this, too, if you think he's worth it."

Ichigo said, "It's your decision. Rukia's a bossy little bitch, but don't let her push you into it."

Rukia rounded on him, ready to kick him to death and remonstrate him for interfering, but his eyes met hers, calm and clear, and Rukia understood. Marrying Byakuya would bring struggles. If Hisana felt she hadn't done it on her own volition, it would be harder to take.

Rukia said, "Do whatever will make you happy. That's all." She picked up her half-finished bowl of yakisoba. I'll… leave you to think about it."

Ichigo followed her, but stopped in the doorway. He said, "And don't do it for Rukia either, because you feel guilty and think having a Captain for a brother-in-law would help her out. If you do, she'll feel guilty that you married for her, then you'll feel guilty for making her feel guilty, and it'll spiral on forever."

Rukia dragged him out of the room.

They finished their dinner on the roof, then lay back on it to observe the stars, letting the drama of the day fade.

"This is sooner than I expected," said Rukia. "By about three years."

Ichigo tapped the roof tiles in thought. "If you weren't here, I bet there's no chance she'd say yes. She'd still feel too guilty. I bet she'd think she didn't deserve happiness. If he really loved her, he'd have to be persistent. He'd have to ask her again and again."

Rukia's eyes were shadowed. "The Head of House Kuchiki and an Outer-Rukongai brat. I thought their relationship would be romantic. But it's more than that. And less."

"It's real," said Ichigo, and they remained on the roof until their eyelids grew heavy.

#

#

After three full days with Hisana, who had made no decision but was more present after the first night, Rukia and Ichigo went on a trip.

Sentan Hakuja brought them to the mountains, crossing vast distance in a momentary whirling of white cloth and Kido energy. Shunpo took them to a bare, shadowed valley, and more shunpo took them to a bare valley yet more remote.

Finding a place to train in secret was critical. They weren't willing to trust themselves to Yoruichi and Urahara's secret training area under Sokyouku hill. Aizen had had too many decades to find it.

Ichigo helped with the various security Kido, but it was still mostly on Rukia. Her Kido skills, always advanced, had sharpened in the last few years. Obscuring mist surrounded them, and Ichigo relaxed.

Still, even with the Kido, they were depending on security through obscurity, though low odds that Aizen would have this valley in particular under surveillance.

He drew his zanpakutou. "Protect, Zangetsu."

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki," said Rukia, and they began, facing away from each other.

#

#

Rukia again examined her shikai. It was not quite the same as it had been before she'd returned to the past.

The blade and ribbon were each two inches longer. The hilt, which had been unusually long, hadn't changed its dimensions at all, from what she could tell, yet the balance point was at just the same place as before, so something else she couldn't pick out had changed.

The changes to her shikai's power were more significant than the changes to its form.

There was no longer any reason to call out the number of the dance. Tsukishiro was simply Tsukishiro, Hakuren was simply Hakuren, and the motions to activate them had gotten quicker. For Tsukishiro, the vertical tunnel of ice, she stabbed the zanpakutou. up or down, then swung it in a half circle horizontally. Hardly any difference to its activation. But for Hakuren, the horizontal tunnel of ice, she swung her zanpakutou in a half circle vertically, then turned the zanpakutou horizontally. And the respective tunnels moved more quickly than before.

Not the greatest changes, in the end. Speed added to abilities that had already been beautiful and powerful. But speed was no small matter.

Tsukishiro and Hakuren she would keep secret. Shirafuni, which extended her zanpakutou, and juhaku, a trail of freezing that could spread through any solid surface toward her target, would be public abilities. Juhaku, nearly twice as fast as before, would seem sufficient as her shikai's main power. Add to that that it had become much easier to contact freeze whatever she touched with her zanpakutou, and her shikai would seem impressive even with her hiding its two greatest powers.

Going all out, she thought she could make most Captains consider whether to release their bankai.

It was not a power she deserved. She hadn't earned it and wasn't born to it. The improvement to her talent was a result merging with her younger self. A result of the Hougyoku's actions. Not completely unlike what had happened to Inoue and Chad, and, she suspected, to Ichigo.

Just as they had, she would use it.

"Well?" she said to Ichigo, who was working with his own shikai.

Ichigo said, "Haven't found any attacks but Getsuga Tenshou. But I'm getting better with it. Making it curve. Making it corkscrew. Keeping it inside the blade when I attack. And I'm getting better at controlling the ribbon." He'd already told her that it could wrap around his body like spotty cloth armor, and it automatically bandaged itself around his wounds.

"Sparring?" said Rukia.

Ichigo nodded, returning Zangetsu to its sealed state. An odachi the same size as they knew his bankai to be. Sparring with shikai was dangerous, and he'd refused to do so until, he, like her, was competent with healing Kido.

He shunpoed behind, and her turn was shunpo. Around them, boulders shattered and the sparse trees fell as they flickered around the valley, a constant dance of shunpo, both of them going full bore, aside from the lack of shikai and killing intent.

Fully incorporating Shunpo into her fighting style, rather than using it simply for traveling and dodging and the occasional attempt to take an opponent from behind, was one of Rukia's principle training goals. She'd made progress since returning to the past, but it still wasn't as fluid as she'd like. Not as fluid as Ichigo's shunpo.

Still, her advantage in Kido was much, much larger. Ichigo tried Sokatsui, and Rukia deflected it with an angled shield, replied with Rikujokoro, then Hianawa, the chain latching about just one arm as Ichigo tried to avoid. She followed that up with a Sokatsui of her own.

Ichigo came out of it with his hair frizzed and a few light burns, his eyes dazzled by the light of the fiery explosion.

Rukia had saved her own vision by shutting her eyes.

She shunpoed behind him, and, poor of seeing, Ichigo block was too high. She pushed his blade high and rested her own edge on his chest.

"Tch," said Ichigo.

Rukia said, "That's nine for me and seven for you." She glanced up at the dark, purpling sky. In the valley, sunset had come and gone, and dusk reigned. The stars would be coming out soon. But as soon as they came out of the valley, returning to the higher point, the sun would appear above the horizon again. It was probably yet half an hour until sunset in District 4. "Time to go," she said.

"Quitting while you're ahead?" said Ichigo, even as he prepared the cloth for Sentan Hakuja.

"Quitting before you're embarrassingly far behind," she corrected. When they'd first come to the past, her power had exceeded his substantially. He had finally, later than she'd expected, caught up to her. Shortly, he would surpass her. So she'd best savor what victories she could get.

She'd never admit it out loud, but she thought in a real fight, he'd already win nine times out of ten. Ichigo had an absurd track-record of winning fights he'd had no chance in.

After using Sentan Hakuja to get back within 40 miles of their destination, they shunpoed the rest of the way back, chasing the sunset. They reached Hisana's shop just as dusk did, and two figures were outlined in the doorway.

While they'd been gone, Byakuya had come.

Ichigo wanted to hang back, giving the couple their privacy, but Rukia shushed him and pulled him forward while cupping one hand around an ear, moving with all the stealth she'd learned in forty plus years as a shinigami, and time before that as a Rukongai brat. Though Ichigo was annoyed at her nosiness, went with all the stealth he could as well, until they were peeking around the corner of the house, within twenty feet. The air was still, and the District surprisingly quiet.

Hisana and Byakuya stood close to one another, but there was no touching. No speaking. Their eyes communicated everything. Ichigo felt voyeuristic just from witnessing the eye contact. It wasn't natural to stare into each other's eyes for that long. Didn't they get uncomfortable? Didn't they _blink?_

Hisana said, "Until next time, Byakuya-sama."

Byakuya inclined his head, made some low-voiced goodbye Ichigo didn't catch, and was abruptly gone.

Next to Ichigo, Rukia was squeezing his hand so tight his bones were grinding together. "They're getting married," she whispered.

Ichigo didn't get how Rukia knew, but he'd trust her on that.

#  
#

Kaien looked well. No different than Rukia remembered. Dark hair, sea green eyes, a ready smile. Ichigo's face, nearly, with different coloring.

The last two times she'd seen him, she'd killed him.

She was in Division 13's central square, standing at the back of the gaggle of new recruits, watching as Kaien tested them one by one. She kept herself focused in the same way she would in battle. In war. Hyperventilating could wait until later.

When he at last got to her, waving others out of the way, Kaien said, "Kotsuki Rukia, what do you have to show us?"

Rukia bowed, shunpoed away with her head still bowed, and struck a practice target with a quick and chantless Sokatsui, the concussive blue fire destroying the wooden board.

She shunpoed throughout the practice area, using a number of low to mid Kido. She didn't attempt her most difficult feats, but she didn't hide her skills either. Didn't introduce any artificial clumsiness. Kotsuki Rukia would have a reputation as a technician whose raw power lagged. A stereotype for female shinigami.

Only the restriction to her power and her slightly labored breathing were faked.

The various Division members who'd come to spectate and cast bets about the new recruits were watching with a great deal more interest than before. Casting chantless Kido between rapid shunpoes was something only a few of the Division's top Seats could do.

Kaien called out the Division's resident hand-to-hand expert, just as he had for the others. The man was an eighth Seat, and Rukia had always prioritized Hakuda below everything else. Against him, she got thrown around, but thought she gave a decent accounting of herself in the end.

Kaien said, "You have shikai, correct?"

"I do." She could refuse to show it publicly. That was common. A holdover of long bygone days before the creation of the Gotei 13, when Shinigami had killed each other more than they'd purified Hollows. Though Rukia knew those days weren't as dead as most people thought.

She could, she was sure, get up to at least 4th Seat even without using Shikai, but the goal was to hide her true level. She had to appear to be going all out when she lost to the 10 Seat or so.

"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki." Her zanpakutou. turned white, a long white ribbon grew from the end of the hilt, and the temperature dropped 10 degrees.

It would've been 25 or 30, but she'd restrained herself. Still, there was a murmur from the watching shinigami.

Kaien said, "16th Seat Nodaka Lin, step up."

Nodaka Lin was a tall woman with brown hair. Made cautious by Rukia's reputation and performance, she went to Shikai right away. Her shikai was a glaive, and Rukia didn't remember her at all, which might mean that she'd died, transferred to a different Division, or any of half a dozen less likely explanations.

The first pass was exploratory. Lin hit hard and fast, and the glaive's length was a real problem, but Lin didn't use any special ability. Did it not have one, or was Lin holding it in reserve?

A second exchange, longer, and when they parted, the blade of Lin's glaive was coated in a heavy layer of ice, and frost was on her fingertips.

One strike, a second, and the glaive was knocked out of Lin's trembling hands. Rukia put the edge of her sword to the 16th Seat's neck.

"Called," said Lieutenant Kaien. "13th Seat Rumopaga, you're up."

That was harder. Her reiryoku control was more of a restriction, biting into her like clamps, fighting against the instinct to raise her reiatsu. But she won that fight as well. Then narrowly beat one 10th Seat, and lost narrowly to another.

Captain Kaien conferred with 3rd Seat Seya Miyako and Captain Ukitake.

Rukia watched. 3rd Seat Miyako had been nearly as important to her as Kaien had been. She'd idolized her, dreamed of becoming like her. And Miyako, too, had died on that horrible night.

The three officers proceeded to test the next recruit.

When the nine of them had all been tested, Kaien approached her and said, "You'll be one of our 10th Seats, Kotsuki-chan. Be sure to take advice from the other 10th seats, and from the lower seats and unseated officers too. Just because you're good in a fight doesn't mean you know anything about fighting Hollows or running a Division."

10th Seat. She'd never been Seated, and now she was Seated on arrival. She'd known it would happen, but it didn't feel real. "Yes, Lieutenant Shiba."

"Remember you're on probation for the first half-year. Don't mess it up."

Left unspoken was that, while rare, Seated non-officers existed. Powerful shinigami who'd proven themselves completely unsuited to command. Not that it was likely to happen to her. Plenty of shinigami who were completely unsuited to command – Captain Korutsuchi, for example – had never received the designation.

The new recruits were brought into the formal dining hall a dinner with the Division's top officers, Captain Ukitake, who looked well by his standards, presiding over it all. As only one other recruit had been seated, and that at 20, Rukia was getting the lion's share of attention from the Officers.

"...Don't get too cocky… ...your first Hollow… ...you'll be fine, just be careful… ...leadership is key… ...don't try to lead until you know what you're doing… ...focus on your zanpakutou… ...focus on Kido… …focus on shunpo… …focus on your strengths… ...focus on your weaknesses… ...focus on your biggest weakness and your biggest strength…"

Whatever piece of advice she might care for, she got. It would've been bewildering if she were the rookie they thought she was. As it was, she nodded solemnly and thanked each one for their advice.

3rd Seat Miyako was very warm to her and said her office was always open. "Us girls have to stick together. And if you have any girl problems, be sure to come to me right away."

Rukia nodded. It was much what she remembered Miyako saying the first time around, and it made her feel warm and nostalgic.

Lieutenant Kaien only sized her up and said, "If you have any questions, ask me."

Captain Ukitake took her aside and said, "You must feel as if you're under pressure, receiving the heavy expectations of so many. But you are only a rookie Shinigami of my Division." He smiled gently. "Don't worry about what they think. Work hard, but at your own pace, in your own way."

"Thank you for your wisdom, Captain Ukitake," she said, bowing.

Captain Ukitake accepted her formality. She knew he wouldn't start urging his subordinates to be more familiar with him until they'd had a few weeks to get comfortable. "Just be sure you're trying to become the best version of yourself, not someone else," said Captain Ukitake, as he released her.

Rukia thought it was the best advice she'd gotten, vague or not, except for the 14th Seat who'd told her it was a thousand times better to use shikai and discover you didn't need it than to not use shikai and realize you should've as your guts spilled out.

She could attest to that herself.

When the dinner had concluded, she found her apartment. #117. It already held the three boxes that contained her possessions, plus the minimal furnishings she'd spoken to the Quartermaster about.

As a Seated Officer, her apartment was decently sized. A front room, a kitchen next to a small formal dining room, two bedrooms, two closets, and a bathroom with a shower but no tub. If she wanted a real bath, she'd have to go to the Division's public baths. A male section, a female section, and a co-ed section, which Rukia, as a Kuchiki, had never entered.

Rukia locked the door and closed the blinds before collapsing on the tatami mats and letting herself feel. Letting herself know that Kaien was alive, and Miyako too and none of the worst events of in her life had happened yet. But also she wasn't special to most of the people special to her, and it was better that way.

She cried, but when she was done, pretended she hadn't, wiping the floor dry with her sleeve.

She decided to turn the spare room into a combination library, study and drawing studio.

She began organizing her things. Two of her three boxes contained art from Hisana. She was putting it on the walls when a familiar presence appeared at her door. No doubt he'd followed her reiatsu to find her. He could do that, she'd noticed. Up close, his sensitivity was still poor, but at distance he was a bloodhound.

Making sure that she was entirely composed, without any sign of mental perturbation, she let Ichigo in, and, daring him to say anything about it, handed him a painting Hisana had made for her. The sun rising over a forest in winter. She wanted it higher than she could reach.

He helped her hang that, then another picture, then a third, which was a picture of a bunny that looked like a bison eating out of a porcelain bowl, and when Ichigo didn't make any comment about that, Rukia started to freak out. There had never been a better opportunity to make fun of her size or her artistic taste, and he was ignoring both.

Rukia said, "Is something wrong?"

"Hmm?"

"You're acting weird."

He was silent, hanging the last picture. When he finally spoke, it wasn't a direct explanation.

Ichigo said, "I'm 9th Seat of Division 6."

"So?"

"It's odd, but Byakuya seems to like me."

"He'll grow out of it," said Rukia, but Ichigo didn't scowl. He was still serious and distracted.

Ichigo said, "I think I'll like it. Being a Seated Officer. Nice routine. Doing something that matters. My apartment is a lot like yours. A little nicer. Kuchiki and all."

"Okay..." said Rukia.

"Once the problem is fixed, I should be pretty comfortable."

Rukia frowned. "Don't get too comfortable. Remember that you don't belong here."

Ichigo stared at her. His eyes were heavy, full of sorrow but not despair. And a smidge of indignation. "Where the hell do I belong then?"

And Rukia understood. Allowed herself to see what he'd finally confronted. Maybe he'd been born human, or half human, at least, but that was in a different timeline, and if they understood reincarnation right, Kurosaki Ichigo would never be born, because his soul was already in Soul Society. What could Ichigo do, go to the human world, fake papers so he could attend a college, and spend the rest of his life in a gigai working a nine to five? That would be pretending to be something he wasn't. That would be living a lie in a place he didn't belong.

Horror overtook her features. "I'm so sorry."

"For what? None of this is your fault. It was my fight too, from the very beginning, even if we didn't know it."

His mother, killed by the Grand Fisher, one of Aizen's experiments. His father, a shinigami himself. The struggle against Aizen had been his as well long before he'd known Hollow or Shinigami existed.

She wondered if she should comfort him. They'd always dealt with heart sickness briskly, like a strong, cold wind ripping apart banks of fog. But perhaps he needed warmth. A smile. A touch. A bar of chocolate.

But if she smiled, he would see it was fake. They never touched except for bickering and physical convenience. And she had no chocolate to offer.

Rukia said, "It's too late to go back to Division 6."

It wasn't, and even if it were, the dark held few fears for Ichigo. But he said, "Got a place to sleep?"

She pulled the spare futon from the closet. Even as she'd gotten it from the quartermaster, she'd thought of it as Ichigo's. She was glad he was staying the night.

They lay in their futons a few feet from each other. Rukia was almost asleep when it occurred to her that really, Ichigo ought to be sleeping in the other room. But she was used to his breathing lulling her to sleep. She'd laid his futon next to hers without a second thought.

Once upon a time, he'd insisted on leaving his room when she changed, even when she changed in his closet.

Rukia said, "Ichigo, you will never stop missing those who are lost to you. They will always have a place in your heart. But in time, you will find new precious people. People who love you, and who you love. It will never be what it should've been. But one day, you will wake up and realize that you are no longer lonely."

He was silent. She wondered if she had offended him. If he had fallen asleep. If she were asleep and had only dreamed of saying all that.

Minutes had passed when he mumbled, just loud enough to hear. "Idiot. How could I be lonely? I've got you."

By the thin, silver light of the moon creeping through a blind, she watched him turn over, burying his head in the futon, pulling the blanket up over his hair. They did not speak again until morning.

:::

If Ichigo had had a release command for Zangetsu, it woulda been 'Protect,' right? That's fanon for me, so I'll always do that.

Judging from my description of the sunset, Soul Society has timezones, and the simplest explanation for that is that Soul Society is round.

I don't want to make Rukia into super Rukia, but there should be some impacts from merging with her past self.

I'm dissatisfied with the relationship between Hisana and Byakuya. I have a fic on my computer called 'Hisana Lives' where Byakuya is as reserved and inexpressive as in canon, and Hisana humanizes him for others. Their relationship makes sense. But I've made this Byakuya young and happy, and I'm not feeling the chemistry.


	6. Chapter 6

**Everything is Different Upon Review: 6**

Contrary to Ichigo's impressions from hearing Renji and Matsumoto complain, Captains and Lieutenants didn't spend most of their time on paperwork. There were a solid 10 to 20 hours of it a week, to be sure, and doubtless it would get pretty hellish around the time when budgets and year-ends were due, and it would be even worse if you procrastinated, but Byakuya and Lieutenant Suzuki spent most of their time out and about the Division or leading missions.

And even a solid half of the paperwork wasn't that bad. As 9th Seat, Ichigo got to see it plenty. Reading mission reports and planning training rotations were necessary, sensible, and not that dull. Beyond helping out with that, his paperwork mainly consisted of writing his own mission reports, and, on occasion, mission plans. When his peers complained about it, he huffed at them, reminded of slackers at school.

Ichigo had always been a good student, and uptight in a lot of ways. He'd always been a stickler for the rules that made sense to him, and he'd long been casually violent. He liked having a routine, and he liked having responsibilities. He knew all that about himself. So it came as no surprise that so much of Division life fit like a glove.

To be sure, he disliked the more pointless rules, and getting the rank and file to not stand at attention whenever he passed by was tough, and he chafed at having to moderate his speech, but even that wasn't too bad. As a 9th seat, he got to call most of the Division whatever he wanted, and looking young as he did, he got away with a lot with those ranked higher. Plus, the age hierarchy wasn't nearly as strong in Soul Society as in Japan. It couldn't be. The society would collapse under the weight of it if it were.

No one gave a damn about his bright orange hair, either. Seireitei had plenty of people with even weirder hair colors. Those with naturally high reiryoku had a tendency toward unusual colors. Even Rukia's black hair was, to his mind, of a darker, truer, more absolute black than was found in humans.

It was strange, to go back in time and live in a different dimension, lying to everyone about your identity, at the center of a two-person conspiracy, and feel as if he finally belonged.

Sometimes, though, he cried at night when thinking of his family. He'd never told Rukia that. Never let her see. Less because it was embarrassing than because she'd twist it around to being her fault.

But she had caught him staring into the sky on Karin and Yuzu's birthday, so probably, she already knew.

Then, one day, right when he'd gotten back from a four-day patrol in District 42, Rukia popped into Division 6, yelled something about Kaien, sex, and an angry Miyako, and dragged him after her without explanation.

Ichigo saw red.

#

Some dreams started fine but didn't stay that way. You'd gotten a dog. A very nice dog who followed you around. Everywhere. The dog was always behind you. Sometimes, when you turned very quickly you saw it at the edge of your vision. You knew it was there mostly by its panting, its smell, the way it clamped its teeth around the back of your head, not quite painful, but you couldn't get it off, and it was eating you. Finally, you did get it off and ran away into the woods, and just when you thought it was safe, you heard its panting behind you again and realized that the woods were its home and there were other dogs there too.

Evening drill was like that.

Rukia was standing in line with all the others, going through standard zanjutsu drills with her fellows, a communal end to personal training, when 3rd Seat Miyako came up behind her, watching her drill.

Miyako said, "You're such a beautiful girl, Kotsuki-chan. Like a doll."

Rukia put on her best fake smile and said, "No, no. You're much more beautiful than me."

According to the rules of girl talk, Miyako should've insisted that that wasn't the case and complimented her again, but instead Miyako said, "You let me know if any of the others bother you." There was something in her voice that Rukia didn't like.

Rukia laughed uncomfortably. "No, I'm sure that would never happen. I'm not developed at all."

"Some men like that," said Miyako, and Rukia shivered. "Some of them talk about it after a little sake'. They give grand speeches about how it's age that matters, not development, not physical maturity, and they say that 16 is plenty old enough to know what you want."

"3rd Seat Miyako-"

"You seem to get on well with my fiancee."

"Lieutenant Shiba has been a great mentor." Though in truth, he hadn't spent half so much time with her as in the original timeline. There wasn't any need to.

Around them, drill had stopped. Other Division members had turned to watch, to listen.

Miyako said, "Yes, he's been giving you a lot of one-on-one attention, hasn't he? Sneaking into your room at night, you little slut."

Rukia gaped. Every person on the practice field was frozen, watching, Kaien included, paused mid-swing.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Rukia. Miyako had always been so kind to her. So gentle. Like an older sister. She couldn't imagine the source of such vitriol.

Miyako said, "Four different people have seen him going into your apartment at night. Wearing an orange wig. Do you still have no idea what I'm talking about?"  
Rukia's lips formed an 'oh' of realization. "I'll be right back!" she shouted, and shunpoed away to Division 6 at top speed.

#  
#

Most of the Division members currently in barracks were gathered in a circle. At the center of the circle were two pairs. The first pair was composed of Lieutenant Kaien Shiba, and his fiancee, 3rd Seat Miyako.

The other pair was composed of 10th Seat Kotsuki Rukia and an orange-haired boy with subtle Division 6 markings on his shihakesho. He looked human 13 or 14, and aside from the coloration and size, he looked disturbingly like Lieutenant Shiba, who he was glaring at.

3rd Seat Miyako again bowed so low her head nearly touched the ground, apologizing to both Lieutenant Shiba and 10 Seat Kotsuki. She'd been doing that since the orange-haired boy had arrived.

Kotsuki Rukia was holding the orange boy's sleeve. He had his arms crossed and was scowling heavily.

Rukia said, "This is Kurokento Ichigo. We're friends from back in Rukongai. He's the 9th Seat of Division 6."

Kaien said, "He goes to your room at night?"

"Not every night," explained Rukia. "Sometimes I go to his. And sometimes we don't even sleep together. Next to each other. ON SEPARATE FUTONS. It's not like we plan it. We just like to meet up at the end of they when we can, and if it's late, why not sleep-over." She stopped, huffing.

Kaien stared at Ichigo.

"Yo," said Ichigo.

The Division murmured.

6th Seat Enjoh said, "Itty-bitty Kaien."

Ichigo pointed to Kaien. "He's Ichigo one point O, more like." He turned to Rukia. "So this is the early model. He looks more like me than I thought."

"Ichigo!" She couldn't let him think that way. He wasn't a replacement for Kaien. They just looked a bit similar.

"Like looking at a black and white photo of myself."

Rukia said, "No, Ichigo, your chins are different."

"Are they?"

Hesitant, Miyako said, "Kaien's face is a little longer."

Ichigo shrugged. "You two can go on about that if you like, but I thought the hair was a bigger difference." He grinned. That was dangerous. "Hey, look-a-like, waddaya say you an' me find out how similar our zanpakutou are?"

Rukia said, "Ichigo! You don't challenge another Division's Lieutenant." The rest of the Division was grumbling about Ichigo referring to their Lieutenant as a look-a-like.

Ichigo said, "Not challenging him. Just thought it might be fun to-"

Rukia took a firmer grip on Ichigo's arm and shunpoed away.

One step, two, three, and she threw him against a boulder that was part of Division 13's garden, moss in its shadows.

Ichigo said, "Oi, Rukia, what's the big-"

"You're not thinking! It's up your craw for some reason. Can you look me in the eye and say you wouldn't go overboard?" Wouldn't try to win. Wouldn't reveal that his level was already past that of most Lieutenants.

Ichigo looked away.

"I don't know what your problem is, but you need to calm down, get control, and remember your priorities." She jabbed him in the chest.

With her index finger pushed firmly into Ichigo's chest, Kaien and Miyako appeared behind them.

Rukia bowed politely. "Lieutenant Kaien, 3rd Seat Miyako, I apologize for my friend's rudeness. Please forgive him. He's an idiot who should've been put in Division 11."

"Yeah," said Ichigo. "Sorry. I misunderstood Rukia when she was explaining the problem." His eyes moved from Kaien to Rukia, and Rukia turned pink. "She was just setting me straight on what actually happened."

Kaien said, "What did you-"

Miyako's hand on Kaien's shoulder silenced him. She said, "It's probably better to not get the details. Kurokento-san. Rukia shunpoed into your Division, rattled off an overly brief explanation and told you to follow her back, and you rushed over here to defend her honor. Is that about it?"

"Well," said Ichigo. "Pretty much." He grinned again. Rukia did not like this grinning Ichigo. His response to living a life of dissembly reminded her unpleasantly of Ichimaru Gin. Ichigo said, "Sorry for thinking you were a bucket of slime, Lieutenant Shiba."

Rukia kicked him. "Behave!" she hissed.

Kaien laughed. He covered his mouth and his shoulders shook, but the laughter still escaped. "I'll leave you two to it," he said, when his laughter had stopped, turning to go.

Miyako said, "Wait. Kurokento-san. How old are you?"

"I dunno," said Ichigo. "Pretty young. Didn't really keep track in Inuzuri. Twenty something. Maybe 30s. I don't really remember being a toddler but it might've lasted awhile, so maybe even 40s."

Miyako looked questioningly at Kaien. "Wild Oats?" she said.

#  
#

"I do not want to be here," said Ichigo again, looking around the 4th Division. But no one cared what he said. Kaien looked nervous, Rukia looked prim, and Miyako, in between further apologies to Rukia, looked conflicted about the possibility of having a future step-son. She kept looking at him as if to figure out whether he'd fit in family photos.

If Rukia didn't have a firm grip on his sleeve, he'd shunpo the hell out. This was not part of the plan. Not part of any plan. Not being connected to the Shiba clan was half of why he wasn't with Rukia in Division 13 in the first place.

Concluding her examination of blood and reiatsu mixed in flask, Captain Unohana said, "Lieutenant Shiba, 9th Seat Kurokento is related to you."

Kaien gulped as Miyako twitched.

"A cousin, I believe."

Kaien sighed in relief.

Unohana said, "Is Captain Shiba available?"

"Shit," said Ichigo.

#

#

When Kaien returned to Division 4 with Captain Shiba Isshin, it wasn't as emotional as it should've been. Ichigo had expected to be swept away by a wave of emotion, but when his father entered the room, young and dressed in a Captain's Haori, it mostly felt like he'd been away for awhile. Except not, because he didn't really know this Isshin and this Isshin didn't know him.

"Yo," said Ichigo.

Isshin looked from Ichigo to Kaien and said, "Kaien, I think this would be your son, not mine."

Captain Unohana said, "Blood and reiatsu, please."

Isshin, being nervous about needles, looked away as Unohana drew his blood. She mixed the blood in a flask with Isshin's reiatsu – it was weird to see light creating a frothy mixture with liquid – and set Isshin's flask next to Ichigo's.

She watched how the froth in each flask pushed up against near sides, coming closer together, and passed a beam of light through both at once, watching how it refracted.

Ichigo wondered again what she was doing. She definitely wasn't testing DNA.

Unohana nodded, redid the test, and said, "Captain Shiba Isshin, 9th Seat Kurokento Ichigo is your son."

"My son!" said Isshin, opening his arms. "Give daddy a hug!"

Ichigo glared.

Perfectly businesslike, Captain Unohana said, "Captain Shiba, did you ever have sexual relationships with a woman from District 78?"

"District 78?" said Isshin. "No. Not District 78. District 77, sure. Ah. She was a sweet girl. How is Maya-chan?"

"I have no idea who that is," said Ichigo.

"Your mother. You don't look like her." He smiled and clapped Ichigo on the shoulder. "Clearly you take after your daddy's family."

"I don't remember having a mother," said Ichigo. That hurt to say, even if it was part of his cover story.

Kaien said, "Uncle Isshin. Didn't you say you got Maya married to a musician in District 22?"

Isshin snapped his fingers. "That's right! How could I forget? They sang such beautiful duets together. Your mother can't be Maya. She must be the other one. Or the other other one. Oh, or her too. Or _her."_ He smiled. "Or one of the sisters. Or the mature woman in District 63." He sighed lustfully. "The gratitude of women is a wonderful thing, Ichigo, my son. I'm sure you will discover it."

Ichigo growled.

Isshin said, "You don't remember anything about your mother?"

Now that Isshin had been proclaimed his father, there was no sense anymore in letting people think he was a Konsoed soul. "I do remember someone who might've been, but she died when I was very young. I can't remember her face anymore."

Isshin went instantly from joy to crying fat tears. "To think of one of those beautiful, wonderful, giving, generous women died so young." His face cleared. "Would you like to become a Shiba? You and Kaien look both so much like your grandad it's amazing. I know I have a picture here somewhere."

Issshin stuck his hand into his interior breast pocket, the pockets of shihakesho being unnaturally large. He pulled out a cucumber, a hard boiled egg, and an assortment of pictures of scantily clad women in compromising positions.

"Why the hell do you carry all those?" shouted Ichigo.

"Here it is," said Isshin, sorting through the pictures of scantily clad women, and holding a picture up, though there weren't any women in it.

It looked to Ichigo look a photo, but considering how old it must've been, he supposed it was a photo-realistic drawing. In it was a boy who had to be young Isshin, smiling stupidly and striking a weird pose with his arms crossed over his chest. Behind him was Ichigo.

Only not quite Ichigo. A middle-aged Ichigo with brown, frizzy hair, hazel eyes, and deep laugh lines. But otherwise, Ichigo.

Ichigo said, "Why do his grandsons look so freaking much like him? It's creepy."

Isshin said, "He was a very attractive man, my daddy. We had to pass down a face like that. Not very manly looking, but the women never complained, I can tell you that. And besides, Ganju is his grandson too and doesn't look a thing like him. He takes more after me, and mum. His grandmother."

Ichigo looked at the picture of his grandfather. He'd never thought about it, which was stupid, but of course he had a grandfather and grandmother on his dad's side.

"What was his name?"

"Shiba Mashiro. Not much of a fighter, but one of Soul Society's greatest doctors, and very interested in birds."

"And my grandmother?"

"Shiba Azuki. She'll be happy to meet you."

"She's still alive?" said Ichigo, startled.

Isshin turned serious. "She's looking forward to going after dad into the next life, I think, but yes, she's still kicking. And she'd be thrilled to welcome in a grandson." He turned jovial again. "What do you say, Ichigo, my darling son? Do you want to becoming a Shiba? Oh, but Kurokento is a wonderful name. So cool. So dark. Which kanji do you use?"

Ichigo turned to Unohana. "Was he dropped on his head as a child?"

Rukia puffed out her chest and said, "I gave Ichigo that name."

"Excellent taste," said Isshin. "Who are you?"

"Kotsuki Rukia. 10th Seat of Division 13. Ichigo and I came to Seireitei together from Outer-Rukongai."

"Oh," said Isshin, nodding at Kaien. "So she's the one." He set the picture down and gave Ichigo a thumbs up. "Nice, my son!"

Ichigo said, "I will kick your ass if you say what I think you're going to say."

Isshin said, "Rukia-chan. Will you be my daughter-in-law?"

Ichigo leapt out of his chair at the Captain of Division 10. They hit the floor together, grappling.

Kaien whistled. Isshin wasn't going anywhere near to all out, but Ichigo was pretty damn impressive for a 9th Seat.

:::

I somewhat wish I'd called this story, 'Everything is Strange Upon Review," rather than different, but I chose the title quickly without much thought. Ah well. The first hint of strangeness is coming shortly. I mean strange not as in 'unusual,' but as in unfamiliar and puzzling.

I have no axe to grind against Miyako. That was just the best way I knew to make the scene.


	7. Chapter 7

Ichigo stood in the shadows of the Division 6 courtyard, glaring at two older shinigami. He didn't remember their names. Now that he was a leader, he was having to get better at remembering names, but he still wasn't good at it.

"You think she's a looker?" said the stupid looking one.

"Maybe, maybe not," said the other stupid looking one. "She must be bold, though."

Ichigo leaked reiatsu, but his idiot subordinates didn't notice it.

"Oh," said the stupid looking one. "You think," he motioned with his hands around his belly.

The other stupid looking one laughed. "She'll need loose clothing to hide the baby-bump, for sure. You know how stuck up the Captain is about his honor. She must've trapped him with that."

Ichigo wasn't leaking reiatsu anymore. He was gushing out the sort of reiatsu, the sort of spiritual pressure, associated with a 3rd or 4th Seat at full tilt, outlining him in blue, and the killing intent was even more noticeable than the power.

The stupid looking ones slowly turned.

"9th Seat Kurokento," said the first.

"Kurokento-sama!" said the second, trembling slightly.

Ichigo didn't slacken his reiatsu. "Are you two on break?"

"Yes," said the stupid looking one.

"Then what the hell are you doing in the zanjutsu training ground?"

The other stupid looking one said, "We're just about to start our training rota."

"Then stop gossiping and start training!" Ichigo roared.

"But Korokento-sa-"

Ichigo raised a bouken, a wooden practice sword. "How about I check on your progress?"  
The two shinigami paled.

After thoroughly thrashing the two, Ichigo proceeded to the Division office, resolutely ignoring the buzz of conversation, all the shinigami gathered into gossiping groups. Absolutely no one was actually training.

"Should I beat up everyone?" said Ichigo to himself, scratching his head.

A voice yelled, "Kurokento-san! Kurokento-san."

Ichigo stopped and turned, allowing the man to catch up. "Saito."

"Captain Kuchiki is getting married."

"Yeah," said Ichigo, resuming his course. "Good for him."

"To a commoner! A Konsoed Outer-Rukongai brat!"

Ichigo scowled.

"I'm not saying it a bad thing!" Saito said. "It's just really surprising! I thought you might know about it."

Walking again along the path toward the main office, Ichigo said, "Why would I know about it? He's your third cousin."

"A relation only ever remembered by his social secretary when sending New Years greetings. But everyone knows the Captain likes you. And besides. That friend of yours in 13th. Kotsuki Rukia. Is she-"

"Shut up."

"But-"

"Stop gossiping when you're on the clock, Saito." He knocked on the frame of the painted silk screen that fronted the main office.

"Come in," said Lieutenant Suzuki.

Ichigo slid the screen aside. The room was large, with one desk for Byakuya, another for Lieutenant Suzuki, and a third, pushed into a corner, for the secretary.

Ichigo nodded at Suzuki and the secretary, a cheerful middle-aged female shinigami whose name he never remembered, before saying, "Hey, Captain, congrats on the announcement. What's the date?"

Byakuya looked at him coldly, clearly considering whether to again remonstrate him for his lack of formality. In the end he said only, "A year from now."

The shortest possible official engagement, Ichigo guessed. "Give Hisana my best. Anyway, I'd like another Living World mission."

Behind him, Saito thumped his back, excited by confirmation that Ichigo did know the woman in question.

Lieutenant Suzuki said, "I assume you'd like Japan again?"

Ichigo shrugged. "Not very interesting to go to a place where I don't understand the language. Translation Kido just ain't the same."

Byakuya said, "Your request is noted and will be taken into consideration. However, you have spent a great deal of time in the Human World as it is. You need to get to know Soul Society better."

Ichigo scowled but didn't protest. Later, he'd bring cookies to Lieutenant Suzuki and nice tea to the Secretary. That should do the trick.

He closed the tree, took the few steps out into the courtyard, and realized that most of the Division members currently in Seireitei were in the courtyard. Like vultures gathering around a dying deer, waiting for some hint to sneak out of the main office, perhaps waiting for someone to be stupid enough to go in and ask.

"So?" said 5th Seat Kara, chewing on her braid nervously as she asked.

They thought he was the one stupid enough.

Ichigo bared his teeth. "Kido training ground two, now." Well away from the main office.

The crowd shifted, looking at each other.

"Now!" shouted Ichigo, again pumping out reiatsu.

Even the Seats higher than him didn't protest. Ichigo was good at hiding his strength, but not good at hiding the fact that he was hiding his strength, and sometimes he lost his temper.

Besides. He might know something.

Ichigo walked at the back, keeping the ones who thought that this, with no competition, was the perfect time to spy on the main office, in front of him.

Like herding goddamn cats.

The shinigami piled into the Kido training area and Ichigo hopped on the center target. He waited for the murmuring to quiet before he started.

Ichigo projected, not quite shouting. "I am fucking disappointed. I know shinigami aren't gathered for their empathy or moral acumen, but I didn't realize we were worse gossips than a bunch of old men at a tea shop. Our Captain is the head of one of the Four Really Rich Families and he's marrying for love. That's special. All you assholes need to support him. Generally by not spreading a bunch of malicious gossip. But maybe there are a couple other things we ought to do." He cast a questioning glance at Saito. "A card? Group wedding gifts?"  
Saito nodded eagerly.

"19th Seat Saito will help arrange it. He's a noble, so he knows all about that shit, right?"

"Right," said Saito.

"But the main thing is to cast threatening looks at anyone accusing the Captain of being foolish or Hisana being, you know." A gold digger. "I happen to know Kotsuki Hisana-san. She's a friend's older sister. She's really nice. Educated. Sophisticated. Got a high class disposition. I'd bet she was some sort of noble back in the human world. She started in Inuzuri and ended up a successful artist in District 4. So you can be sure she's tough as nails. But you wouldn't guess it. It's like she's above it all. I know a couple people like that. I don't get it." He shrugged. "I'm not sure she and the Captain have so much as held hands. They're pure like that. So if I catch any of you talking shit about her, I will beat your ass. And that goes for you too, Kara."

5th Seat Kara winced. 9th Seat or no, she had no doubt that Kurokento could paste her.

Ichigo shrugged. This wasn't quite the legalistic egalitarianism that he'd praised the 6th for, but he was still young and new. He couldn't be expected to have imbibed the Division's culture completely, now could he?

"Here's what I'll say. They really love each other. Both of them. It's sweet and romantic an' all. You should be proud of having such a sincere and earnest Captain. And if anyone doubts that, I'll be happy to talk to you about it personally on the Zanjutsu training grounds."

He raised his bouken and everyone nodded.

"Right," said Ichigo. "That all I have to say. So how 'bout you assholes all _go and do what you're supposed to be doing!"_

The crowd began to disperse and Ichigo hopped down from the target.

"Well?" said Ichigo.

Saito said, "Your personal style is as refreshing as ever. But I think it worked."

"Really?"

Saito said, "I'm feeling ashamed, a little."

"Good. _What are you supposed to be doing right now?_ "

"Ah. Kido Training Rota, actually."

Ichigo said, "Then do it. I've got paperwork." And he shunpoed ahead of the crowd, eager to get to his cramped office without taking any questions.

Coming around the second bend, he nearly ran into a blank-faced figure in a white haori.

"Captain," said Ichigo, suppressing a gulp. Had Byakuya overheard that? He had no idea how he'd react if so. Young and happy or not, Byakuya was still prickly and prideful.

Byakuya said, "Your request for Living World duty, Japan, has been approved." And he walked away.

#  
#

Urahara's shop wasn't in Karakura Town. Finding it had taken months of arranging as many missions to Japan as possible and shunpoing around at high speed, senses peeled for the reiatsu of Urahara, Tessai, or Yoruichi.

He'd fought Hollows and Konsoed pluses along the way. He'd spent a day in Hiroshima, Konsoing plus after plus after plus, many with their chains growing short, and he hadn't been the only shinigami there doing it either. He'd felt like an assembly line worker, and he hadn't stopped until he was shaking with exhaustion and furry little creatures crawled at the edge of his vision.

He lay on a slab of concrete, and when he'd recovered a little, rather than returning to Konsoing the pluses as he felt obligated to, he'd resumed his search.

In the end, he hadn't found them directly. But he had found exiles, and humans with odd powers, and citizens of Soul Society who did business with the Real World. And from them, he gathered that if he wanted a specialty item, he should head to a certain record shop.

He would like to think that it resembled Urahara's candy shop, but it didn't. It was glass fronted and relatively modern, and there were people inside. He wouldn't have thought there'd be a lot of demand for records in post-war Japan. The poverty was palpable. But there they were.

Though on closer inspection, many more were listening than buying.

He phased through glass windows in shinigami form.

Urahara was there, just as he remembered, with the same hat and cane. He glanced at Ichigo and continued helping a customer.

Ichigo waited. The kid looked like he could use a little joy in his life.

When the kid was sent off with the record at what seemed like a ridiculously low price, though perhaps that was just due to decades of inflation, Urahara turned and yelled into the back. "Tessai, take the front."

With a jerk of his head, he indicated for Ichigo to follow him into the back.

Ichigo ghosted over the counter and after him, noticing from how Urahara held the cane that he was ready to use it at an instants' notice, so he gave the former Captain a little space.

The back was full of boxes, crates and fliers. Urahara flopped down on a crate, but Ichigo preferred to stand.

"I'm Kurokento Ichigo, 9th Seat of Division 6."

"My, my, my," Urahara said, "What an honor. I'm unaccustomed to receiving visits from Seated Officers of the Gotei 13."

"Don't see why. There's no warrant out for you." He'd checked.

Urahara said, "And I'd rather no one reconsidered that. But, so long as you're here, what can I help you with? My inventory isn't as full as I'd like, but I do have a few items that might be of interest to a young man like yourself. Gigai? Specialty sheath? Armor? The cloth folds of a shihakusho are effective, but there's nothing like a partial breastplate and a helmet that looks like a hat to make you feel safer."

Ichigo said, "I have a commission for you."

"Oh?"

"We might discuss it in privacy."

"We are in private."

"Greater privacy," Ichigo said. "Perhaps a large basement."

Urahara's look was long and careful. "Very well." He tapped the wall his cane, and a hidden door opened. Fancier than what Ichigo recalled him having before.

But it led to a familiar ladder with a familiar desert landscape below. Not bothering with the ladder, Ichigo dropped down 70 feet to the ground.

Urahara landed lightly after him, and though nothing in his dress had changed, Ichigo realized that Hat'n'Clogs had left his gigai up above.

Ichigo cast a privacy Kido.

Urahara raised an eyebrow. "I assure you that there are no listeners here."

"Can't be too careful," Ichigo.

"Yes, you can," said Urahara. "But what was it you wanted to ask me about?"

Ichigo said, "There's a particular zanpakutou that creating a problem for me. An illusion type. Witnessing the release of the shikai allows the wielder to beguile you with perfect illusions, virtually indistinguishable from reality. 'Absolute hypnosis,' he calls it. Ideally, I would cause the hypnotizer to believe I'd seen the release of the shikai. But to carry that on convincingly, I would need some way of being aware of what the illusions were."

Urahara smiled, casually resting one hand on the haft of his cane, ready to draw his zanpakutou in an instant. Urahara said, "That would be quite the shikai. Any idea of its limitations?"

"According to the wielder, there are none, but he's a liar."

"And an associate of liars."

He hadn't imagined Urahara being suspicious of him. He'd imagined that Hat'n'Clogs would figure out he was a time traveler before 10 minutes were out, and deduce his life story in the next 15. But that wasn't reality.

Ichigo said, "I'm good friends with Kotsuki Rukia. I think you met her once before."

"Yes," said Urahara. "You've been friends since your days together in Outer-Rukongai. I do keep an eye on the going ons in Seireitei."

"She's a special woman."

Urahara's gaze was unreadable.

Ichigo decided to ditch the subtlety. He didn't like it anyway. "You don't trust me. Fine. But if you wanna beat Aizen, you need to trust someone at least a little."

Urahara said, "The most likely explanation for you knowing what you know is that you're Aizen's creature."

"Does it explain everything?" His intimation that he knew the Hougyoku was in Rukia.

"I don't know," said Urahara, eyes still shuttered. "Why do you think that witnessing his shikai's release is the ritual to begin ensorcellment?"

Ichigo was surprised. Urahara knew less than he'd thought. "You don't think so?"

"I didn't say what I think. I asked why you think what you think."

"I won't tell you why I think what I think. Just what I think. And how sure I am."

Urahara nodded for him to go on.

Ichigo said, "Aizen is sociopathic. He's also gifted, and he wants to become God with a capital G. Tousen and Ichimaru are both his creatures, but I think Ichimaru might want to kill him. I'm not sure. I just get that feeling. Aizen has been doing lots of Hollowification experiments. Hollow to shinigami, and shinigami to Hollow. He sends his most interesting experiments out to kill talented shinigami, but he keeps his most powerful Arrancars safely in Hueco Mundo. He's waiting to reveal them until he gets the Hougyoku and makes war on Soul Society.

"His Kido, his shunpo, all his skills are excellent. He hides his reiryoku. People think he's a strong Captain, but he's stronger than they realize. Probably only the Captain-Commander has higher reiryoku, and maybe not even him. He can use his shikai to create an obscuring, shining, bewildering mist-like illusion. He claims that's his shikai. It's impressive enough. But he can do other things. He can create a dead body of himself that's indistinguishable from a real one. He can make himself appear to be elsewhere than he is. I don't know what else."

Urahara said, "He can make someone else look like him, while he himself is miles and miles away. However, it seems that in order to do so, he has to leave his zanpakutou with that person. He shows his shikai freely, but not to everyone. He could demonstrate it before the Academy every couple years, but he doesn't. That suggests that, if witnessing his shikai is indeed the ensorcellment ritual, there's some limit to the number of people he can ensorcel. It may be as few as a half-dozen," Urahara said.

"A half-dozen?" said Ichigo. That couldn't be, based on what he knew. But he probably knew more than Urahara.

"He could well be mixing Kido illusions, gigai and even physical disguises with the use of his shikai. The lower ranked could be fooled by the Kido, with the use of the shikai reserved for those who would see through the other deceptions."

Ichigo blinked. He hadn't thought of that. He should've. "That's a good thought. You got any other ideas?"

Urahara said, "I think it's likely that you've been sent here by Aizen to find out how much I know in preparation for moving his plans to the next stage."

Ichigo slapped his forehead. It made sense. It really did. "Anything I can do to convince you otherwise?"

Urahara said, "I suppose you _could_ arrange Tousen's death." But he didn't sound very serious as he said it.

Ichigo said, "No. Double no. I'm not risking my shot to take Aizen down in order to deal with his less threatening subordinate. And I'm betting Aizen thinks three is just the right number for a conspiracy. I already know Tousen is his. I don't wanna be guessing about who he replaced him with."

Urahara nodded.

"At least make me some sort of device to let me and Rukia evade his shikai without him noticing. If I'm his minion, you lose a little. If I'm not, you gain a lot."

"Show me your shikai," said Urahara Kisuke.

Slowly, Ichigo drew his zanpakutou. "Protect, Zangetsu."

His reiatsu rose, and his massively oversized kyber knife came into being, white ribbon wrapping up his arm.

Urahara said, "Wake up, Benihime."

They came together in a clash of blades, Urahara strong and fast. Ichigo tried shunpoing behind him, but Kisuke was faster. "Nake, Benihime," Urahara said, and a beam of red energy left a line of red blood on Ichigo's arm. It could've been deeper if Urahara had liked.

"My my," the shop keeper said. "How disappointing."

"Fine," said Ichigo. "I'll show you what I can really do." He'd improved in the months since becoming an official shinigami. There couldn't be many Lieutenants who could handle him. He stopped hiding his strength and raised his reiatsu to his fullest, glowing blue with it. "Dodge it, Kisuke. Getsuga Tenshou!"

Urahara dodged even as he raised his blood-mist shield, partially deflecting the blast. It left a deep rent in the ground, but Urahara was unscathed and on him in an instant, fighting him more seriously than he ever had before. Ichigo wasn't some wet-behind-the-ears rookie who he'd watched grow up from a distance.

Ichigo returned the favor, working in every bit of skill he'd acquired. He could manage at least a few Kido without incantation.

As the tip of Zangetsu passed narrowly over Urahara's head, Urahara said, "You're going after my hat."

"I'm gonna kill your hat."

"You think you can?"

Blades locked, Ichigo said, "Getsuga Tenshou."

As Urahara's eyes widened at the realization that Ichigo didn't need any wind up at all, a single spear of blue energy shot out of Zangetsu and knocked Urahara's hat clean off.

Urahara and Ichigo watched it glide slowly to the ground, a single hole running straight through it, burn marks around the edges.

Urahara said, "That wasn't bad at all. You're stronger than I thought, Kurokento Ichigo. You could easily be a Lieutenant with those skills. You should even be able to force a few of the weaker Captains to bankai."

"Thanks," said Ichigo, returning Zangetsu to its sealed form. He met Urahara's gaze and sheathed his weapon.

Urahara smiled and put away his own. "Tell me, do you feel you can understand your opponent's intentions through the exchange of blows?"

It was a strangely familiar question, though he'd heard it from Gin before. Ichigo said, "The exchange of blows teaches me whether they're serious about slicing me open or not. But that's it. Never really felt like it let me see into someone's soul."

Urahara said, "So you think it's mostly nonsense too, Kurokento-kun. But not completely. Fighting you, I feel that you're strong. And I feel that you're not the sort to be anyone's dog. I'll extend you a little trust, Kurokento Ichigo. I'll make you that device. Now let's talk about cost."

#

#

Ichigo's eyebrow piercing caused a stir when he first showed up with it. Suzuki gave him a talk about proper appearance, and Byakuya gave him a disapproving look.

He'd kept on wearing it anyway, explaining that it was practical. It cut out light beyond a certain value. Wearing it, he could stare at the sun. He could see some bright, fiery attack without being dazzled by it or losing his night vision. Yet at the same time, it did a good job of indicating the relative brightness of things without making some objects too dim to see, such that he hardly noticed it most of the time. In fact, his night vision was better with it. And Hollow reiatsu and the reality break of a garganta both showed up slightly better when he was wearing it.

The benefits weren't huge, but Ichigo couldn't think of any real negatives. It was just a good device.

When asked where he'd got it, Ichigo said he'd gotten it from Urahara Kisuke.

It was suggested to him that he should never buy from Urahara again. He asked why it was such a big deal to buy from someone exiled for creating an untraceable gigai. It wasn't like the guy was a murderer.

Lieutenant Suzuki gently suggested that back then there had been strong rumors that the official reason for Urahara's exile wasn't the real reason, but Ichigo was too young, dumb and unsubtle to pick up on Suzuki's meaning.

Other shinigami started showing up with the eyebrow piercing. In very short order, Division 12 acquired one and reverse engineered it, making their own versions available. They did just what Ichigo said and no more.

Only Ichigo's and Rukia's were different. They had two added functions. First, they could, with a thought, cut off their vision entirely without in any way appearing to do so. Second, they contained something like a highly undeveloped artificial soul. It could be hypnotized. On being so, it would overlay whatever illusions it saw onto their vision as see-through ghosts.

Ichigo wished he'd had one the first time around, but the more surprising thing was that it actually looked cool. He wondered if someone other than Urahara had been in on the design, or if Urahara had just known it should look cool. Ichigo's was a black steel ring with a purplish-blue stone, and Rukia's was a white steel ring with brownish-orange stone for her. Complementary colors and all that. When Rukia had explained that, Ichigo hadn't devoted any brain space at all to the thought that he and Rukia were complementary to each other. Nope. Definitely not.

:::

I planned on this chapter being longer, but it felt weird to have a bit of Urahara/conspiracy in the middle of 'wedding wedding wedding.'

Layers of fabric make a surprisingly good defense against hacking, slashing and stabbing. So it's reasonable to suppose that the shihakusho provides more protection than it appears to. But the helmet thing… well, it's fiction convention to ignore the fact that helmets are the single most important bit of protective gear.

My understanding of Aizen's claims in regards to his shikai is that he can show people any illusion he likes. But in practice, his illusions seem largely restricted to ones involving his own form.


	8. Chapter 8

**Everything is Different Upon Review: 8**

Ichigo and Rukia met up at Division 13's least used training ground, a scrubby grass field that needed more water, or less less so it could become simply packed sand. For the session, only bakudo and shunpo were allowed, with Rukia still having the decided advantage in the former, though Ichigo had become competent.

Ichigo _finally_ caught her, binding her in the Kido rope of Hainawa. Arms and legs pulled tight together, Ichigo pulled on the chain and Rukia fell.

Ichigo laughed. Learning over her, he said, "You look like a caterpillar in a cocoon."

"It's about time you caught me," said Rukia. "I've caught you four times already."

Smirking, he released her.

Rukia casting speed would've done any rap artist proud. "Bakudo 61, Rikujokoro."

Ichigo went rigid, bound six rods of light, unable to move. He shouldn't have released her. He should've made her break the bakudo herself. The bitch, that was what she did to him.

Rukia patted his cheek, drew a marker from parts unknown, and drew a handlebar mustache on his face.

"What the hell?" said Ichigo. That was infuriating, but also incredibly nostalgic. She'd done that when they'd first met. It was the only time she'd ever done it.

Rukia said, "Hisana's wedding will be in six weeks."

"Yeah." That one year engagement had gone by quickly. He wondered if Byakuya would go on a honeymoon, and if so, how long it would be. He'd been promoted to 8th Seat and might end up being the second highest ranked officer at the Division building for some brief periods. But before worrying about that, he needed to break the bakudo and wipe off the damn mustache.

Rukia said, "Ichigo, I need an escort to Hisana nee-san's wedding."

He wondered where she was going with that. Watching her wring her hands, realization struck. "Me?!" he said, the mustache blown entirely out of his mind.

"Who else am I going to ask, you fool?"

"I thought maybe one of the Kuchiki cousins-"

"They already think we're dirt. Hisana nee-san and I will just look lower if I can't even supply my own escort. And you're a Seated Officer."

"8th Seat. In your new brother's Division. Couldn't you get your Captain or Lieutenant to take you?"

She kicked his shin. "Fool. Lieutenant Kaien is engaged, and you remember what happened. And I haven't been in the Division nearly long enough to ask Captain Ukitake. And if he did escort me, I'd look like a little girl who'd begged her Captain. But you'll do fine. Besides, Hisana wanted to invite you anyway. Just don't insult anyone for a few hours."

"Alright," he said. "I guess. Do I need special clothing?"

Rukia said, "We need dress uniforms. The really expensive ones. Don't worry, I have a special wedding expense account to pay for it."

"I'm not taking that kind of money from Byakuya."

"You'll be the escort of the bride's sister, Ichigo. You're part of the wedding party. You'll take the money, or I'll smash your teeth in."

"But-"

"Need I remind you that you're currently bound by my bakudo and unable to move?"

"Fine," said Ichigo. "I'll do it. I'll go to the fitting or whatever and let Byakuya pay for it."

"And you'll go to the dancing lessons."

Ichigo stared. "We know how to dance. We did fine."

"We did fine at the Academy Graduation. This is a Kuchiki wedding. We have to be perfect. We can't let them look down on Hisana."

Ichigo sighed. "I'll go the dancing lessons. Sheesh, the things I do for you. You better be worth it."

"Why, Kurokento-kun, do you need a reward after we finish dancing?" She fluttered her eyelashes.

Ichigo turned bright red and sputtered. Later, when he walked back into Division 6, still out of sorts and distracted, Saito asked about the mustache.

#  
#

The ceremony was ridiculously beautiful. House Kuchiki had spared no expense in making it so. Music and bells, an ornate temple and an even more ornate kimono for Hisana. She practically shimmered, and Ichigo took comfort in the fact that none of the nobles in attendance, some of them doing little to hide their dissatisfaction, could claim that she didn't look the part.

The ceremony was also extremely long. It went on and on and on. Byakuya and Hisana probably hardly noticed, since they kept doing the 'lost in each other's eyes' thing, but Ichigo was bored.

He tried using the mentality that he would for a museum, but unlike at a museum he couldn't get up, move around, and take a closer look at things.

He tried exchanging a look of exasperation with Rukia, but she was predictably transfixed. Starry-eyed as she watched her sister marry.

Still, as everything must, it ended.

And then the freaking gifts and congratulations line started. That thing was gonna be long.

Fortunately, as the bride's sister, Rukia got to go in near the front, and as her date, Ichigo got to go with her.

He'd almost ended up with one of the Division gifts, but it had been decided that Lieutenant Suzuki and the 3rd, 4th and 5th Seats, who'd all been invited, would do it instead, so he only had his personal gift.

Byakuya and Hisana both liked art, even if Hisana's art was a hell of a lot better, so on one of his trips to the Human World he'd gotten them art books, a couple early manga and comics, and art supplies that couldn't be found in Soul Society.

By the time he'd set the bundle down next to Rukia's gift, she was concluding her congratulations with a request. "May I refer to you as Nii-sama?"

"You may," said Byakuya.

Rukia bowed her head, deeply pleased.

Ichigo said, "Congrats, Hisana, Byakuya."

Byakuya glared at the familiarity.

"What? You're not my Captain here. Just my friend's brother-in-law."

"Still. Even in a personal context, you should address me as Byakuya-san."

Ichigo stared. Had he just heard that right? He couldn't have. "What?"

"I said that in a personal context you should address me as Byakuya-san." He seemed amused at Ichigo's surprise.

"Right, that's what I thought you said." Byakuya-san? Really? Were they friends? Did Byakuya see him as some sort of little brother or nephew thing? It was just weird. But not bad. "Congrats, Byakuya-san. Hisana-san." And he ducked away so the stuffy nobles behind him could give their gift and congratulations.

Rukia covertly dug her fist into his kidney.

"What? I did alright."

"You're pushing it, Ichigo."

"Hmmph."

There wasn't much to do but watch the reception and gift giving. At first he'd thought the gift giving was strange, but Rukia had explained it was a chance for the other nobles to show off, and nobles seldom let that slide, and a chance for the marrying couple to accept a lot of valuable items, and nobles NEVER turned that down.

Some of the guests were circulating, of course, but Ichigo didn't want to mess with the nobles, or do whatever to Rukia's position by hobnobbing with the 6th Division Seats who'd been invited. Saito, in his capacity as a distant cousin of a branch family, was somewhere.

An arm wrapped around his chest. "My son!"

"Isshin," said Ichigo.

"I've told you to call me Daddy. I didn't see you at Sunday brunch. You left me and grandma so alooone."

Ichigo rubbed his head. Sunday brunch with Isshin and grandma was a tradition that he was embarrassed to say actually existed. "I told you I was called away as reinforcement." A nasty Hollow in District 53. That was how the Gotei operated a lot of the time. Rank and file shinigami made contact with the Hollow, then called in a high-Seated heavy. "I sent you a butterfly."

"And you didn't even try to reschedule. Why?" Isshin's voice rose. "Why do you try so hard to make Daddy sad?"

"We're at a wedding," hissed Ichigo. "Have a little dignity."

"Weddings are not the time for dignity," Isshin cried. "They're times of joy and celebration."

"Sure," said Ichigo, and the froze when he saw another figure in a white haori, standing just behind Isshin and smiling genially.

Ichigo's heart stopped, stuttered, and resumed. "Hey, Captain Aizen, is it? It's an honor."

Aizen smiled. "Yes, I am Captain Aizen. And you must be Isshin's son. I've heard a great deal about you, and all of it good." He smiled at Rukia. "And you as well, 10th Seat Kotsuki."

"You're too kind," said Rukia.

"No, no," said Aizen, "in these dark times, with Hollow numbers on the rise and us still struggling to work through the backlog of pluses created by that horrible human war, it's a comfort to see there are such bright talents among the next generation."

Isshin said, "A wedding is hardly a time to bring that up."

"You're right, of course. I apologize. I dwell too much on it of late."

"I'll bet," said Ichigo. He looked meaningfully at Isshin. "It's the sort of thing every Captain should dwell on quite a bit, don't you think, instead of getting mad at other Shinigami for missing out on a brunch in order to fight a Hollow?"

"Daddy just wants to be appreciated."

"Yeah, whatever, I've gotta go say hello to grandma."

Isshin complained, "Why do you call her grandma but you won't call me Daddy?"

Walking away, Ichigo called back, "Think about it and maybe you'll know the answer."

As they disappeared into the crowd, Rukia whispered, "Very well done, Ichigo."

"Yeah. I'm impressed with myself. Come on. I really do need to say hello to grandma."

Grandma was sitting in a chair, because she was past the age where prolonged standing was suitable, though she still walked fine with a cane. She was gray-haired and straight backed, with a very traditionally Japanese appearance aside from a bulbous and familiar nose.

Grandma was still sharp, but he thought she'd fade away soon. According to Isshin, she'd only held on so long because she wanted to meet granddad again, but time it right to seduce him as an inappropriately younger woman. Isshin implied that she had it all worked out with forbidden Kido. Ichigo assumed that was just Isshin talking stupid.

"Hey grandma."

"So this is your young lady," Shiba Azuki said.

"This is Rukia," said Ichigo. "But she's not 'my young lady.'"

"You talk about her enough for it. But you two are a bit young to be thinking much about it, I suppose."

Rukia bowed, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Shiba-dono."

"Don't stand on ceremony with me, young woman." And one cool, claw like hand reached out to grasp her face and chin, scrutinizing her closely.

Rukia hated when old women did that, but had learned to tolerate it. She waited for Shiba Azuki to pronounce that she'd grow up to be pretty.

Shiba Azuki said, "You're going to grow up to be strong and independent, aren't you? Or perhaps you already are."

"I hope so," said Rukia, eyes widening.

"Know so," said Shiba Azuki, releasing her. "They're a wonderful couple, but that ceremony was dratted long. I fell asleep. When Mashiro and I married, we made a promise, jumped over a sword together, and called it good and got to know each other better all night long."

"Really?" said Rukia, dazed.

"Quick and efficient, exactly how it should be. Of course, others disagreed, but by the time they dragged us out for a 'proper' ceremony they were so horrified that they didn't like looking at us and their ceremony didn't last long. We always celebrated our anniversary on the date of _our_ ceremony."

"As you should," said Rukia, recovering.

"Kotsuki-san," said Kaien, coming up behind his grandmother with Miyako on his arm. "Congratulations on your sister's big day. They're a beautiful couple."

Rukia thanked him in a very proper and noble manner, raising eyebrows by doing so. Ichigo had worried earlier that her manners would get her in trouble one day, but in the future it would make perfect sense. She was simply acting the part of the sister of the Matron of House Kuchiki

Ichigo said, "Kaien. Your hair looks glued on." It was all flat, like. "Looks fine, though." After the first strains of anger and awkwardness had dissipated, he'd gotten on fine with the Lieutenant.

Ichigo glanced at Miyako and said, "Hey," before turning away, as short with her as ever. He'd heard about her calling Rukia a slut in front of the whole Division and hadn't forgiven her for it, even if Rukia had. Miyako had bowed and apologized a lot afterward, but she hadn't behaved apologetically, in his opinion. Besides, believing what she had, Kaien was the one she should've been mad at, not Rukia.

Kukkaku, with her rough-looking tattooed date on her arm, and a very young Ganju trailing uncomfortably behind, joined the group.

Ichigo said, "Good. You've still got both arms."

Kukkaku made her stinkface at him. "When are you going to stop greeting me like that?"

"When you lose an arm," said Ichigo.

Kukkaku said, "I know precisely what I'm doing with my fireworks. There won't be any accidents. Of that scale."

Ichigo said, "I was there last time you were 'testing out a new one.' Rukia, this is the maniac I told you about."

Rukia bowed. "It's an honor to meet you, Shiba Kukkaku-dono."

Ichigo moved on as Rukia and Kukkaku spoke. "Nice braids, Ganju. You look cute."

Ganju glowered. He really was a kid, which meant he'd aged quickly, and he clearly hated how prettily dressed he'd been.

Ichigo didn't know what had happened to Kaien, Kukkaku and Ganju's parents, but they had passed. It must be fairly recent, considering that Ganju couldn't be over 30, but no one seemed eager to talk about it and Ichigo hadn't pressed.

Even though it was his extended family, Ichigo let Rukia do the majority of the talking, listening with some concern as Grandma and Kukkaku advised her on her blossoming womanhood.

A unspeakably powerful, half-familiar presence approached. The reiatsu was tightly contained, yet impossible to miss. Like an awareness that something massive was just outside your vision.

Kaien, Miyako, and Rukia all quickly bowed. Ichigo waited just a moment, bending right before Rukia would've hit him, and he rose quickly, saying, "Yo, Yama-ji"

The Captain Commander looked at him sternly, but didn't remonstrate him. Powerful shinigami tended to be high strung, stubborn and eccentric, and the Captain Commander had to be used to it.

Rukia on the other hand... "Be respectful," she said, slapping him repeatedly on the back of the head. "What a pleasure and honor to meet you, Captain Genryusai Yamamoto-dono." To Ichigo, "Be respectful!" Having decided that bowing wasn't enough, she curtsied. In her annoying school girl voice, she said, "It's an honor to have you here, Captain Genryusai Yamamoto-dono. I hope the ceremony was to your liking."

The Captain Commander said, "It was a restful ceremony. Young Byakuya is growing well."

She laughed her fake laugh. "He is indeed." She elbowed Ichigo in the gut. "Now greet him again, but respectfully."

Ichigo said, "Stop hitting me. He's older than sin and stronger than hell. He doesn't give a shit about how brats greet him."

"He is not older than sin, Ichigo. Sins is surely at least as old as humanity, and while the Captain Commander is extremely old, even ancient-"

"It's a figure of speech, you confounded literalist."

Rukia drew back her fist, and Kaien put his arms around both of them. "Hahaha," Kaien said, half-facing the Captain Commander. "You two are as spirited as ever, but now isn't the time."

"Stay out of this, Shiba," Rukia said, eyes flat. "Ichigo is making his desired impression on the Captain Commander, and interference is not welcome."

"Not a very positive impression," said Miyako, smile strained.

"Never said it was," said Rukia.

"And you approve?"

Rukia said, "If I did, I wouldn't be hitting him." She smiled again at the Captain Commander. "If there's anything at all you'd like, tell me, and I'll be sure to arrange it."

Ichigo said, "He'd probably like to be treated like a normal person from time to time."

"Not by you," said Rukia.

"Ummm," said Kaien, distressed.

Shiba Azuki grabbed him by the back of his kimono and pulled him back. "It's never a good idea for outsiders to interfere in a domestic squabble. Don't you agree, Genryusai?" She practically purred the name, and the Captain Commander's stern expression took on a hint of worry as he paled slightly.

"You look as fit as ever," Azuki continued, taking a step forward.

The Captain Commander nodded stiffly, about-faced, and cut to the head of the reception line, no one being stupid enough to stop him.

Shiba Azuki watched him walk away. "That Captain Commander… The old beast is going to live forever. He was already old when I was young. I always was attracted to older men. But Mashiro was actually younger than me, wouldn't you know? I'd like to fix that."

Ichigo began to feel slightly ill.

Shiba Azuki said, "Kotsuki-chan, join us for brunch next Sunday."

#  
#

As the bride's sister, Rukia was at the high table, directly to Hisana's left, Ichigo, as her date, to Rukia's left. It might be an old hat to Rukia, but he felt uncomfortable surrounded by absurdly rich people who wished he wasn't there.

He looked out over the hall. There were a lot of tables. One of the nearest and largest was drawing glares from the others.

Byakuya had invited his fellow Captains, and most of them had come. Gramps, Kyouraku, Ukitake, Unohana, Soi Fon, Isshin, Tousen. Komamura, wearing a stupid bucket on his head. And Aizen. Ichigo was careful not to stare, but also not to avoid looking at him. It helped to pretend within his own head that he and Aizen were both exactly what they appeared to be. He forced his mind to other things.

Judging from the glares at the Captains, some of the nobles resented how near to the front their table was. And it was interesting that Isshin was with the Captains instead of at the Shiba table with the others. That table was also getting looks. The Shiba were the black sheep of high nobility. Eccentric, informal, casually scandalous, and not nearly so numerous or wealthy as they'd once been, but ancient and still influential in the Gotei 13.

There were politics going on in the seating arrangements, but Ichigo didn't know what they were.

He also noticed that a lot of the nobles were strong. Hard to say how strong, but High Seat level for sure. Some of them had zanpakutou, he knew. If they'd just all join the Gotei, both worlds would be in much better shape.

House Jinushi was especially large and powerful. One of the Four Great Noble Families, and one with no tradition of service in the Gotei 13. Jinushi Gouman, the Head of the family, was a slim man of middle-age, with black hair and hooded eyes. It was hard to say, but Ichigo thought that Jinushi Gouman might be as strong as a Captain.

The man met his eyes, and Ichigo stared back for a moment, looking bored, until Jinushi Gouman looked away with a contemptuous curl of his lips.

Ichigo turned to the woman next to him. She was exiting middle-age, but would've still been beautiful if not for her frown lines and the harsh cast of her face.

"Hey," said Ichigo, figuring it was more formal than 'yo.'

She turned to him with an expression as if she smelled something rancid. "And you are?"

"Kurokento Ichigo, 8th Seat of Division 6."

"I see." The woman said, "It's unfortunate that Byakuya-sama had to arrange for one of his own officers to escort his new… sister."

Ichigo's polite smile was the best scowl he'd ever managed. "Nah," he said. "Rukia and I go way back. We were in Outer-Rukongai together, we went to Shino Academy together, and we graduated together."

"Outer-Rukongai," said the woman, as if the phrase itself was unclean. "District 78. It must've been difficult to adjust here. Reading. Writing. Eating with utensils."

"Nah," said Ichigo. "The difficult part was learning to stand on our hind legs. In Outer-Rukongai, we walked on all fours and ate live ferrets with nothing but our teeth."

Rukia pinched his thigh. Hard.

"Yes," said the woman. "That must have been an adjustment. Tell me again, what was your name? It seemed familiar."

"Kurokento Ichigo."

"Ah," said the woman. "You're Shiba's bastard, aren't you?"

"I am. And you're one of the Captain's unemployed silver spoon dependents?"

"I am his great Aunt, Kuchiki Chiyo, yes."

Rukia dug her fingers into his thigh again, and Ichigo settled in for a long night. At least the food was good.

#  
#

Thank god for dancing. Ichigo felt vulnerable enough as it was without Zangetsu at his side or his eyebrow piercing in. If he'd had to spend one more minute listening to that Kuchiki bitch, he would've exploded.

But out on the dance floor, stepping to the music of koto, shakuhachi, and other traditional instruments, arms linked with Rukia, he was feeling like weddings were nice events, all things considered.

The dancing was rigid and rote, but that was alright. Moving to music was a pleasure he'd gotten more acquainted with during their lessons, in the charge of the Kuchiki's family dedicated dance instructor, who hadn't been that bad, all things considered. She'd adored Rukia, who was a 'natural.'

Ichigo didn't have the same 'innate grace,' and 'clean lines,' but he'd always been a quick learner. He didn't think many of the posh nobles around were doing much better than him, and no one was doing better than Rukia.

Rukia whispered, "I've been given a suite in the Kuchiki estate. In the main house."

"Is it familiar?"

"Not especially. I'm only his sister-in-law. But a suite in the main house is more than expected. I've been added to the family rolls."

"Your name..."

"My name isn't changing. I'm not being _adopted._ It's just an official acknowledgment that I'm Nii-sama's sister-in-law. He didn't have to do that. Considering circumstances, many people must've advised him not to."

None of that surprised Ichigo. Young Byakuya was a closet rebel. Ichigo was tempted to buy him rock albums and see what happened.

He had just spun her around when Rukia, wearing a teasing expression, said, "You've really gotten better at this. Perhaps we should go out dancing on our own time."

"Sure," said Ichigo.

Rukia gaped, eyes bugging out.

"Why not?" Multiple people had told him that for the long haul, he needed more to his life than just his duties and training, or he'd burn out. And he'd surprised himself by liking dancing. "I haven't been keeping up with playing the koto." Which he'd studied for two years as a student at Shino Academy.

They were pausing for breath at the end of a song when a fancily dressed boy approached them and said to Rukia, "May I have the next dance?"

The boy had dark skin and purple hair, appearance reminding Ichigo of Yoruichi, but a bit younger in physical age than them. Ichigo gave him his most intimidating scowl, and the noble boy shrank back.

Rukia stepped on his foot. "It's normal to dance with multiple partners." He could hear that the addendum, 'you fool,' was only left out for the sake of present company. "Shihouin-sama is sticking his neck out by being so welcoming."

And she took the boy's hands and swept back out onto the floor with him, Ichigo staring glumly after.

Ichigo ended up dancing a measure with 5th Seat Kara, which was weird and uncomfortable for him, though she seemed amused. He eventually worked his way back to Rukia, and the night continued.

#  
#

The guests had mostly cleared out, Byakuya and Hisana politely seeing off every one of them. As Hisana's sister, Rukia was one of the few that hadn't yet left, so Ichigo was hanging around waiting for her, hoping they could leave soon. His fancy kimono had been fine at first, but it was bothering him more as time passed.

He stopped leaning against the wall and came up behind Rukia as the newly-weds approached her.

Rukia said, "Is there anything else before I leave you two alone?"

"You've done more than enough," said Hisana. "Thanks for all your help. I know it can't have been always been easy."

"It was no trouble," said Rukia.

Hisana said, "You impressed Kuchiki Chiyo, at least."

"We did?" Ichigo blurted out, thinking of the woman he's spent much of the night trading barbs with.

"Indeed," said Byakuya. "She said that you are both likely to go far."

Rukia and Ichigo traded looks of surprise, re-evaluating the woman who'd leveled so many insults at them. Definitely still an arrogant bitch, but perhaps nothing worse than that.

Hisana put in, "She said that you were very cute together."

They sputtered.

"With this fool?" said Rukia.

"I am not _cute,_ " said Ichigo.

"No," said Byakuya. "You're a hellion. While I'm gone, I expect you to defeat the 7th Seat in a Seating battle. Suzuki has been authorized to promote you."

"You don't think that's a little fast?"  
Byakuya ignored him, turning to Rukia. "You surely have the skills to advance to 9th Seat at the least, but I encourage you to wait. The higher the Seat, the more dangerous the missions you'll be sent on. Maintain a buffer."

Ichigo said, "Hey, you saying you don't care if I go on risky missions?"

"Correct," said Byakuya.

:::

Let's just go with the idea that Ichigo is a talented actor. He did spend years pretending not to be able to see ghosts.

I vaguely recalling that there are some disappointing and annoying revelations about zanpakutou in the Quincy arc. So Imma just ignore that and say that a zanpakutou is a sort of personification of a spirit's power, an innate feature of people. The asauchi is a fancy sword that can be made with Kido or whatever, and it's useful in helping people to access their zanpakutou, and perhaps to form it into a weapon rather than something else. Nobles were walking around with zanpakutou long before the Gotei were founded.


	9. Chapter 9

Ichigo again had to take a raincheck on Sunday brunch. Not because he was called away to fight a powerful Hollow, but because with Byakuya on honeymoon, Suzuki took over Captain duties, and Ichigo, even though he was just the freshly promoted 7th Seat, was shoehorned into Lieutenant duties.

He had to do a lot of things he'd never done before, like leading whole Division drills, assigning patrols, and answering correspondence from other Divisions, and it all took a hell of a lot longer than it would've if he'd known what he was doing. He spent an hour alone puzzling over how to respond to a very tart letter straight from Captain Soi Fon.

Just when he was starting to get a feel for it, Byakuya came back from his honeymoon, looking positively cheerful, which was bizarre, and Ichigo's duties almost returned to normal.

Almost. Suzuki still had him taking on more responsibility than before, and the Lieutenant might say it was his new responsibilities as 7th Seat, but Ichigo wasn't thick. Suzuki's joints creaked in the morning and he was thinking of retirement. So he was grooming his replacement.

But worrying about that was for later. Isshin kept insisting that he bring Rukia to the next Sunday brunch.

Sunday brunch was always at Division 10.

Division 13 he could slip into easily, whereas Division 6 had unreasonably tight security, in Ichigo's opinion. It wasn't like anyone would sneak inside to steal the paper screens or the koi from the pond. But it was part of the whole discipline shtick so Ichigo let it slide.

Division 10 was in between and titled strangely. No one ever tried to stop him from entering, but they definitely knew he was there. Shinigami stopped what they were doing and turned to watch him. Since he was an outsider. That had mostly settled down over the weeks of Sunday brunches, but with Rukia at his side as they walked through, it ramped back up.

"What is this?" whispered Rukia, uncomfortable with the stares.

"Division 10," he answered, "has a very strong sense of identity."

"So does 13," said Rukia. "It's not like this."

"There's a sense of being apart," Ichigo explained. "To them, we're practically Ryoka."

Passing through the stifling attention, they reached the Captain's residence, a two-story building at the back of the Division, bigger than the home he'd grown up in, but far, far smaller than the main building at Kuchiki Estate, and rang the bell twice.

After a minute, the door was opened by a blonde woman. She was younger than she'd used to be, but her large breasts spilling out as obnoxiously as ever.

"Ichigo-kun!" she said.

Ichigo crossed his arms in front of himself so she couldn't hug him. What exactly was she doing in the Captain's _residence?_

Matsumoto Rangiku, recently promoted Lieutenant of Division 10, hugged him anyway, but only briefly, Ichigo keeping his hands fisted so there wouldn't be any accidental groping.

Releasing Ichigo, Matsumoto said, "And you must be Kotsuki-chan!" She moved on to Rukia, who made the same defensive gesture to keep her face from being mushed into the woman's cleavage.

"You're so cute," Matsumoto said, hugging her tighter.

Rukia was tiny, and her raised arms only helped so much. "Lieutenant Matsuomoto," Rukia gasped, "I can't breathe."

"Nonsense," said Matsumoto, releasing her. "They're waiting on the veranda."

Though Ichigo knew the way, Matsumoto led them to the veranda. A large, covered porch overlooking a small koi pond and a corner of the Division's grassy training yard. Isshin and grandma were already there, seated at table covered in lidded dishes.

"My son!" said Isshin, standing.

"Hey grandma," said Ichigo, bending down to greet her.

"I'll be going then," said Matsumoto. "Have fun with your lunch." She sashayed away, hips moving with every step.

When she was gone, Ichigo looked suspiciously at Isshin. "What's Matsumoto doing in your house?"

Isshin sighed. "Not much sadly. But she takes a strong interest in the living world, so she helped me organize this traditional western breakfast." Isshin began taking lids of dishes. "Pan-kake-su. Wa-fu-ru. Scrambled eggs. Bacon. Orange juice. Cold pi-tsya."

The pizza wasn't actually pizza. Flatbread with slices of unmelted cheese over diced tomatoes. Close enough, all things considered. Though Ichigo didn't think cold pizza was a traditional western breakfast.

"Itadakimsu," they all said together.

Pouring himself orange juice, Ichigo said, "Matsumoto doing any better with the paperwork lately?"

Isshin guffawed. "She scrawls a line on whatever 4th Seat Parachin throws at her. But she's good on assignment and good with those below her. That's enough. Rukia-chan, how's Jushiro treating you?"

Rukia reported on her doings in Division 13 as they began to eat and serve themselves, Rukia loading strawberries on her waffle.

"Ehhh?!" said Isshin. "Rukia-chan, Ichigo, you already know how to use western utensils?"

Rukia dropped her fork. Ichigo felt like slapping himself. They'd been pitch perfect for four years, performed perfectly in front of Aizen, and their first real trip up was being obviously familiar with knife and fork.

Ichigo said, "It's not like it's hard. You know I've been spending a lot of time in the Living World."

Isshin said, "But in Japan! And you don't have a gigai."

"There's western food in Japan. And you don't _need_ a gigai to try the local food."

Isshin looked proud yet pained. "My son. Willing to sit so long on the toilet to have a new experience. But you must be more careful of your health! Promise me, no more Living World food without a gigai!"

"Fine, I promise."

Isshin said, "And Rukia-chan. Have you also been giving yourself the shits?"

Unlike Ichigo, Rukia hadn't sought any solo missions to the Living World. The few times she'd gone, she'd been part of a group. She said, "No, but Ichigo described how westerners eat to me. In detail."

Isshin said, "Excellent, Ichigo. Communication is key to a good relationship."

"You're one to talk," Ichigo muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Shiba Azuki was looking at Ichigo and Rukia oddly, so Ichigo said, "Rukia and I have started cross-training at Division 4."

"Wonderful," said Shiba Azuki, smiling brightly. "You know, Mashiro was an excellent healer."

"Yeah." Grandma had told him the stories. Several times. He wasn't anxious to hear them again, and especially not with Isshin's commentary.

Rukia said, "7th Seat Kenko Youji is pleased with Ichigo's progress. I, however, have been selected for individual training with Captain Unohana herself."

Ichigo said, "They're impressed that she's already so good given her _lack of experience."_

Rukia preened, and there wasn't a damn thing he could say about it.

Isshin started a story about his early years in the 4th, and all the trouble he'd gotten into with Captain Unohana. Those stories always ended with him having 'special time' with an appreciative woman, followed by Captain Unohana ordering him to clean the bedpans.

Ichigo was just about to cut him off when Grandma did it instead. Shiba Azuki said, "Rukia-chan, How are the Kuchiki treating you?"

"Byakuya Nii-sama has been most kind."

Shiba Azuki raised an eyebrow.

"And the others have been polite."

"I'm sure," said Shiba Azuki. "And you have a suite in the main house, I hear."

"I spend most nights at my Division." Rukia smirked. "I still feel a little lost amid all the luxury. I imagine it's a great deal like your family home."

"There isn't one," said Shiba Azuki.

Rukia was momentarily nonplussed. "I knew that the House of Shiba isn't what it once was, but I didn't know that." She blinked. "Where do you live?"

"I live here," Shiba Azuki said. "With Isshin. The old Shiba compound in Seireitei is partly sold off, and the rest is rented, though we do maintain a shrine. There's land in Rukongai, but not a great deal. You've heard the story of our 'fall?'

Rukia shook her head. She'd heard lots of rumors, but had never worked up the nerve to ask Kaien about them. Other nobles surely knew, but it wasn't a subject they'd talk about openly, and other nobles had always gossiped about Rukia, not with her.

Shiba Azuki said, "My Mashiro. It seemed to him that the money he got from his tenants was all out of proportion to the value he provided them. So can you guess what he did?"

"He started a charitable foundation?" said Rukia, who had spent a lot of time with nobles, even if they wouldn't gossip with her.

Shiba Azuki said, "He sold most of the land to his tenants, at a very steep discount. Yes, it was quite the scandal. As a result, we are only wealthy, rather than fabulously wealthy. Tragic, isn't it?"

It was shocking. Nobles didn't sell land; they owned it. That's what nobles were. People who owned a lot of land, talked a big game about how many of their ancestors had been born in Soul Society, and scrounged up a title one way or another. Rukia said, "Did he, did he not realize what would happen?" Many nobles were remarkably bad at finances, which was they had accountants.

Azuki said, "We knew. And as a result, a great many families in Rukongai own their own land. It expanded the ranks of the minor nobility substantially."

No wonder no one talked about it. Nii-sama gave generously. More than he needed to for his reputation's sake. But she couldn't imagine him doing that. For a noble family, one of the Four Great Noble Houses, to make a conscious decision to humble itself, to give away not just money, but wealth… It was unthinkable. Uncomfortable.

Shiba Azuki took another slice of bacon, smiled, an old woman with few regrets. She continued her questioning of Rukia. Practically an interrogation. Questions about her likes and dislikes, her hopes for advancement, her thoughts on water access, even her opinions on marriage and family.

Ichigo thought of how they'd just messed up with utensils and wondered if Grandma suspected something.

Grandma's questions wound down, and they ate in relative silence for a little while. None of the food seemed quite how it should be, but all of it was good.

Finishing a pancake, Isshin said, "So, Ichigo, how about it? I'm bringing it up again. Become a Shiba, officially."

Ichigo froze with orange juice halfway to his mouth. He didn't want to give up Kurokento as his name. It was an adaptation of Kurosaki, and to cast it aside would feel too much like casting aside not only who he'd been, but also his mother. It would be as if she never existed. But how to explain that to Isshin and Grandma?

Rukia said, "You should do it. There are lot of advantages to being part of a noble family. It's safer."

Rukia had intimated as much before. A noble might, in exceptional circumstances, be publicly executed by order of Central 46, but they didn't get disappeared by the Onmitsikido. But he still gave her a betrayed look. She should understand why he was saying no.

Isshin said, "My son, asserting his independence by rejecting Daddy's name. I'm so proud. Or," he waggled his eyebrows, "Is it because Rukia-chan gave you that name, and you wish to give it to her as well someday? As her husband. What a romantic." Isshin sighed theatrically, hand over his heart.

In the past, Ichigo might've responded with violence, but he'd learned that didn't work with Grandma in attendance, because she'd try to help whoever was losing, and she might fall and break her hip.

"Ack," he said instead.

Rukia said, "Captain Isshin, Ichigo and I are not getting married."

Isshin nodded sagely, "Of course you should wait until you're older."

Groaning, Ichigo said, "Get off this. We're not 'waiting until we're older." He nearly said that he didn't see Rukia like that and she was like a sister to him, but some small inner voice warned him not to say something he might not always mean. "We're not involved like that at all."

"Why not?" said Isshin. "What's wrong with my dear Rukia-chan?"

"Other than being a haughty, ill-tempered midget?" He ignored Rukia's reflexive slap to his shoulder.

Isshin drew himself up, face reddening with anger. "I won't let my future daughter-in-law marry any man who doesn't fully appreciate her! If you don't shape up, I won't grant you permission to court her."

"Why the hell would I ask for your permission, Goat Chin?"

"You'd have to," said Isshin. "For propriety's sake. I'm her father, after all."

"Father _-in-law_." Ichigo corrected. " _Future_ father-in-law!" And he caught himself. "No. That's not." Not how it worked. "Argh!" He face palmed in frustration. His dad was the worst. The worst. Well. The worst dad who wasn't a serial killer. Otherwise, the worst. And he couldn't even hit him, with Grandma there.

Glancing up, Ichigo risked a look at Rukia. She seemed amused, maybe even touched, but also shrewishly overwhelmed, and he knew how quickly that could turn into temper and peevishness.

Ichigo said, "Grandma, didn't you have something you wanted to talk to Rukia about? Privately? Away from the veranda."

Amused, Grandma nodded and stood, fetching her cane from where it leaned against fence. She said, "Come, Kotsuki-chan. I will show you the frogs."

"But-" said Rukia.

"Come," said Grandma, tugging Rukia along.

The screen shut behind them, leaving Ichigo and Isshin alone on the veranda. Ichigo glared at Isshin and said, "Do you have to be so embarrassing? It gets people to underestimate you and all, and gets other people to not be intimidated by your status and position, but really?"

Isshin boomed with laughter. "Daddy is happy that you see so much, and sad that you see so little. It really does reflect an aspect of Daddy's personality. Being ridiculous and weird and even creepy is great fun, even by myself." His voice lowered and his face turned serious. "But there's another reason. Consider. The proper and dignified Kuchiki Byakuya, Captain and Head of one of the Four Great Noble Houses, engages himself to a respected artist previously living in District 4, and all the nobility is thrown into disarray. They hardly speak of anything else for months. The legality of it is even briefly brought up in Central 46.

"But mad Shiba Isshin, Captain and Head of one of the 4 Great Noble Houses, starts treating a bastard of unknown maternal heritage as his heir and hardly anyone bats an eye. It's last week's news before the day is out. No one cares. Because that's just what you expect of mad Shiba Isshin. A mad person is liable to do anything.

"It gives me freedom. Freedom to walk around in my bathrobe. To play games with children in the street. To ignore certain rules. To have an openly active sex life with willing women far below my station who I nonetheless treat as equals. Even, and this is the biggest one, Ichigo, to speak the truth.

"There are all sorts of truths that everyone knows but hardly anyone can say. Yama-ji needs to cut his eyebrows. Kyouraku needs to stop borderline harassing his prettier female subordinates. The Quincy Massacre was too drastic and cruel a measure. And the situation in Outer-Rukongai is utterly deplorable and utterly our responsibility.

"Someday, Ichigo, I shall even be known as mad enough that I shall be able to speak the truth about our system of governance."

Mouth dry, Ichigo said, "What do you think of it?"

Isshin glanced around and contorted his expression and tone into ridiculousness again, but his words remained sense. "Consider, Ichigo, a few basic facts. Central 46 is made entirely of Nobles. Sages and scholars, yes, but sages and scholars drawn from nobility, and not minor nobility. Many shinigami hail from the nobility. In fact, two heads of Great Noble families, if you consider the Shiba a Great Family still, are Captains. Yet no shinigami has ever been raised to Central 46. Two Kuchiki are on Central 46, but even though he is their head, I doubt that Bya-kun may tell them what to do. And they rule over us, their verdicts absolute and unappealable, requiring no justification.

"They rule over Rukongai as well, and of course no member of Central 46 has ever hailed from there, nor have any started out in a trade or worked their way up as a merchant. They even, in some sense, rule over the Human World, but it goes without saying that no Konsoed soul has ever ascended to their rank. And this is key, it is they who chose their new members.

"So, Ichigo, considering those few basic facts, draw your own conclusions. And Ichigo, my son." He grinned. "As for gaining freedom by aggressively flouting social norms, isn't that why you speak so casually? And didn't you recently and intentionally perform a heightened version of it for Yama-jii? You're growing more like Daddy every day."

Ichigo was filled with horror.

:::

All the words that naturally came to me for Shiba Azuki were focused on gender. I started her as a blunt and earthy character, but she should be wider than that.

Ichigo and Rukia each slipped up at brunch. Rukia, with the silverware, and Ichigo with calling Isshin, "Goat Chin." Isshin can relax people like that.

...And my politics begin to come through. Unavoidable, that. If I actually get deep into this story, it will become a story about politics. The politics will be things that most of us can probably agree on, like 'authoritarian aristocracy is bad,' but idk. There sure are a lot of Marvel movies going around glorifying Kingship.

"The Shiba family fell because it's just that awesome," was a bit gratuitous.

Why Division 10 feels set apart will be addressed later.

Yeah, short chapter, I know. I've reached the end of the contiguous lump written before I posted the story. No promises regarding updates.


	10. Chapter 10

Ichigo was in the mountains, far from Seireitei, his reiatsu hidden by a Kido barrier he'd made himself. He was dressed all in black, but not a shinigami's shihakusho. His blade was long and black, an odachi with a 'ban' or manji symbol for a guard, a long black chain coming off the end of the handle.

It'd taken four years, but he finally had bankai again, and he'd done it properly, without using Urahara's risky cheat. It was the bankai he'd gotten when Zangetsu and his inner-Hollow had merged.

Rukia, who was sitting on a boulder with Sode no Shirayuki over her knees, said, "Is it different from what you expected?"

"Nah. This is pretty much it." He didn't think it was different at all from what he'd had once Zangetsu and his inner Hollow had merged. "Super speed, flight, and a better Getsuga."

Rukia said, "There's no way your outfit changes so much just so you can look flashier. Zangetsu can't be _that_ vain. There must be some use to it. And that long chain as well."

"I guess. I need to experiment." It was still strange to think that he had years, even decades, to master it.

Rukia nodded, took a deep breath, and a child made of snow appeared. Perfectly white and feminine featured, with black pebbles for eyes.

"You've materialized!"

"Why so surprised?" Rukia said.

"I'm not," he said. "I knew you had to be close." He thought she might've gotten bankai already if combining with her younger self hadn't changed Sode no Shirayuki in subtle ways. He stared closely at the zanpakutou spirit, carving it into his memory. It was a very private thing that Rukia was letting him see.

Rukia said, "Sleeves of Snow. I used to wonder why it was called that and yet my shikai only ever made ice. But I understand now. She isn't an ice and water type at all. She's a freezing type. And when I give the command to shatter, my enemies turn to snow." She raised her blade, and from its own self, the zanpakutou raised its own.

Rukia said, "Some space, if you please."

Ichigo leapt away, shouting, "I'll keep watch." They still had four days of leave, and defeating your materialized zanpakutou, was hard, not time consuming. It was everything leading up to it that took years and years.

#  
#

It was much too cold inside the barrier. Even at the edge of it, as far away from Rukia and her zanpakutou as possible, Ichigo would quickly begin to shiver.  
So he stayed outside of it, a good ten yards past the barrier, cold radiating off its walls, and kept his hands shoved up his sleeves, enjoying the warm light of the sun.

At mid-afternoon on the third day, the barrier broke.

The cool air turned frigid in an instant. Frost sheathed his eyelashes, and he flared his reiatsu just to avoid injury.

The landscape, extending beyond the barrier, straggling on even a little ways past him, was white, covered in ice. What water was in the air had frozen and was falling. Beneath the surface, he was sure, the earth had been frozen into permafrost. Rukia was at the center of the circle of ice, dressed all in white, and her hair was pure white also, as if turned to snow.

Ichigo moved in cautiously ready to shunpo away at any moment. He didn't want to have to defend himself if she wasn't in control of her bankai.

Rukia raised her zanpakutou slowly, examining it.

"Well?" said Ichigo.

"This," Rukia replied, "is very dangerous."

"It's bankai," Ichigo replied. It was supposed to be dangerous. He was glowing with even more reiatsu to stop himself from shivering. As if he were in a fight with Kenpachi.

She spoke slowly, carefully. "I believe I am currently at absolute zero, and I feel as if I could somehow become colder still. As if I could reach some temperature on the other side of infinity."

Slowly, she began to thaw.

#  
#

When Ichigo reported for duty, Byakuya stared at him. He began to fidget, wondering if he'd somehow lost track of the dates and come back a day late.

Byakuya said, "3rd Seat Kurokento Ichigo."

"I'm 6th seat," said Ichigo.

"Not anymore. Go challenge the 3rd seat. Win. Don't dramatize it."

"I would rather not."

Byakuya said, "You hide your true strength, but not well enough to hide that you've grown. Take the promotion."

Ichigo gave a half nod, showing just enough respect to avoid comment, and went off to find the current 3rd seat. Having obtained bankai, he could probably take Byakuya in a fight. It'd probably been too much to hope to pass himself off as anything less than a 3rd Seat. Hopefully Rukia would do better. She had less reiryoku and was more accomplished at hiding it.

He spotted the bald man who'd always reminded him a little of Ikkaku. "Iemura," he shouted. "The Captain wants us to do a seating competition." He drew Zangetsu but didn't release his shikai. He wouldn't dramatize it, just like Byakuya had said.

#

#

As she carried out her duties, doing paperwork, training, and going on a day patrol, Rukia kept expecting someone to notice. Kaien. Miyako. Ukitake. But she only received polite questions about how her leave had been, and exhortations to learn to relax when she said she'd spent most of it training.

She had come into the Division as the tenth Seat, and a little over 4 years later, she was still the 10th Seat. It wasn't as if she hadn't shown improvement. As good as she'd become at suppressing her reiatsu and hiding her true reiryoku (and she'd become very, very good indeed) she'd attained bankai, of all things. She did seem stronger. And she in no way hid her growth in skills. She'd improved her swordsmanship and her hand-to-hand, which had been good from the start. She'd brought her shunpo to a point of high expertise: Nii-sama had begun to show her secret techniques, and while she hadn't mastered them, her shunpo had been above average for a seated officer even before she'd come to the past. As for Kido, she'd verged on exceptional even before coming to the past, and while she didn't show her skills off, she'd ceased to hide them, and worked openly at improving them. The title of Kido Master wasn't out of reach, a fact that her superior had surely noticed, considering how much they asked her to help others improve at it.

From a skills perspective, she couldn't be trailing anyone but Captain Ukitake and Kaien, and perhaps, just maybe, Miyako. She did all her paperwork on time, and with friendly little drawings where appropriate. She didn't make any mistakes on her missions. Instead, she was praised for her good sense, and for 'not acting like a rookie.'

Yet no promotion had come. She wondered if she should request a Seating battle, but Division 13 seldom handled matters in that way. It was considered poor form to not simply wait for higher officers to approach you about it.

Ichigo hadn't had any problems getting promotions. Promoted to 3rd Seat his first day back from leave. Obviously, he wasn't as good at hiding his strength, but still.

On her fourth day back, Kaien called her into his office.

She suppressed her nerves, and listened calmly as he told her that she'd be going on a two week assignment to a place called Nuu Yoruku, which had an unusual quantity of reishi for a city outside Japan.

She made her goodbyes to Ichigo, Hisana and Nii-sama, confirmed with Nii-sama that he hadn't put in a request for her promotion to be delayed, and went to Nuu Yoruku wondering if the problem lay with her.

A month after returning, having spent much of that month torturing Ichigo with questionably on-key renditions of popular Broadway numbers, she got promoted to 9th Seat.

#  
#

Budgets were upon them, and the amount of paperwork had expanded. Ichigo had been grounded just to help with it. He, Byakuya, Suzuki, and the secretary, whose name turned out to be Ringo—she actually was a 17th Seat, and wasn't bad with her zanpakutou—were all spending far too much time in the office, filling out forms and squinting at bad handwriting.

Ichigo did his paperwork in pen. Better than the brush.

Out of complete silence, without introduction, Byakuya said, "Hisana has expressed a desire to visit the Division regularly."

Suzuki, Byakuya and Ringo all exchanged surprised looks at that unexpected announcement. Setting his brush down, Suzuki cleared his throat and said, "Very understandable, Byakuya-sama, but this is not a proper place for a lady, and coming would only make her assimilating into her circle more difficult."

Byakuya hmmed as if he agreed, yet looked doubtful.

Taking Suzuki's lead that it was a personal matter, not a Division one, but pushing it even a step further, Ichigo said, "Byakuya, you know Hisana better than anyone, but there are parts of her you can't ever know. Like what she's like when you're not around. Hisana's a workaholic. She stops working pretty much just for you, and sometimes Rukia. She's probably bored silly."

Byakuya said, "She is well-occupied. She has a stocked painting studio, and she busies herself with her Kido instructor."

"Those are hobbies, not work. It's not like _Lady Kuchiki_ can sell her paintings at the market, and she does nothing with her Kido skills but have them. So embrace her coming down to the Division, and screw the impropriety. She'll do loads of improper things, in a dignified way. She's a great cook, and Rukia's interested her in western baking; she'll make everyone treats. She'll pitch in with paperwork where she can. She's gotten good enough with Kaido to heal simple injuries, right, and skilled enough with Kido to tutor the newbies a bit? The rank'n'file will think she's an angel. Some of them might even start liking you by extension."

Byakuya's expression was cold. "Are you implying I'm not well-liked?"

"You're feared, respected and even worshiped, but there's like six of us total who actually like you, and oh, you're being sarcastic." Byakuya knew he wasn't well-liked. Ichigo didn't think Byakuya cared, but it was hard to be sure.

"I will consider it," Byakuya said, and they all returned to their paperwork.

#  
#

District 65 was as they remembered. Moderately drab, with half-paved roads and a few artificial ponds that formed nuclei of what were almost parks. The endless fields, some half of them devoted to rice patties, took up most of the water brought there by aqueduct.

Ichigo had expected the apartment complex to look more rundown than when he'd seen it last, but instead it looked to have gotten a new coat of whitewash and a new roof too.

He supposed it'd been time. The building, like most of the area, was Kuchiki owned, and Byakuya wasn't a slumlord. He'd want his poor tenants living in respectable poverty, with clean faces and roofs that didn't leak.

Ichigo and Rukia had been sure to arrive on rest day, and went up the stairs until they reached the apartment.

Ichigo had been afraid they'd moved, but Rukia smiled as they got closer, and he knew she was sensitive enough to sense even people with no particular reiryoku.

She knocked on the screen.

#  
#

The apartment was a little nicer than when they'd been there last, not long after the wedding. It had wide, thin cushions, a nicer table, and two folding chair in a corner, evidence of the gradual encroachment of Living World furnishings and styles.

Tokihiro served them tea, a nostalgic ritual for Ichigo, and doubly so for Rukia.

The tea was an icebreaker, but then came the usual questions about how life was going, and Ichigo was asked if he was still the 7th Seat.

Uncomfortable, Ichigo rubbed his head. "3rd Seat."

That caused a moment's silence. They didn't know much about the Gotei, but they did know that the lower the number, the stronger the shinigami, and three was a number startlingly close to one.

Rukia said, "How about yourselves? The place looks nicer than before."

"We'll be moving to a bigger apartment soon," said Subaru. "Me and Toki have been apprenticed to scribes, and Nobu is an assistant to a field manager."

"How lucky," said Rukia, looking satisfied.

Ichigo was momentarily surprised at Rukia having apparently thrown her weight around as Byakuya's sister-in-law. It wasn't like her to use her position. But then, it wasn't for her benefit.

Rukia said, "And Renji? Where's he?"

Subaru said, "The Shino Academy examiners came through 5 months ago. Renji left with them. I thought you would've seen him by now."

Rukia looked simultaneously startled and pleased. "That's a few years earlier than it might've been. But it's no wonder he hasn't come to see us. Academy students don't have much freedom to leave the Academy Grounds, especially in their first year, and they're strictly advised against visiting Divisions."

That led to several hesitant questions about what Renji was likely doing with his days at the Academy, and further, what his eventual duties as a shinigami would be like, and Rukia turned a mission about an unusually insane Hollow fixated on red-headed women in District 28 into a ridiculous, rollicking tale, complete with illustrations.

#  
#

Tokihiro invited Ichigo out for a walk, and Ichigo could hardly refuse. Tokihiro strolled, pointing out trees and giving their names, gesturing to a little culvert he had dug to channel water out of a depression in the road and into a pond.

He hadn't done it on orders, but because he'd thought it would improve matters. Wherever Tokihiro was, he treated it as his garden. Ichigo had been used to that once, but time and distance had made it precious and startling again.

Stopping before a persimmon tree, Tokihiro said, "It's lucky, us all getting apprenticeships like this."

"They must recognize talent," Ichigo replied.

Tokihiro said, "You're the 3rd Seat of Division 6."

"Yeah."

"I hear that Kuchiki-sama himself is the Captain of Division 6."

"True."

"And I hear he married a woman of Rukongai. Kuchiki Hisana-sama. Formerly Kotsuki Hisana. Kotsuki is the name Rukia is using now."

Ichigo was silent.

"Ichigo."

"They look real similar, but we were lucky to discover the relationship."

Tokihiro sighed, hand on the tree's trunk. Ichigo wondered what he had to do with it. Watered it, pruned it, dug a bowl around it? Some small action to improve the world.

Tokihiro said, "We'll never be in position to repay. But if there's ever, by some chance, anything I can do, I'll do it."

There was pride in Tokihiro's stance, so Ichigo said, "Someday, I may call that in."

They stayed for two pleasant if occasionally awkward days. As they left, Ichigo wondered if they'd ever visit again.

#  
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When they returned to Seireitei, Rukia wanted them to go visit Renji at the Academy.

Nah," said Ichigo. "I'll see 'im later. You do it."

Rukia looked at him oddly.

"Don't be thick. You're the one he grew up with." How the hell was Renji supposed to show off for her with him there, being an imposing 3rd Seat and all that?

So Rukia ran off to the Academy and Ichigo crept into Division 6, interrogated Saito to make sure he wasn't desperately needed for anything, and snuck into his room. He had three more days of leave and he intended to enjoy them by lying on his back with a pot of good tea and reading through his backlog of bootleg Human World manga. Tezuka Osamu was publishing his early works, and it was a pleasure to watch the legendary mangaka develop in real time.

Hours later, Rukia bomped in through the window, landed on his stomach hard enough to make him go oomph, and chattered as cheerily as she ever had.

"Renji's doing very well. Advanced Class 1, of course, and he's really been practicing his Kido. Not that he'll ever be much at it, but it's helped in other ways."

"Bitch," he gasped, getting his breath back. "You stomped." Right on his belly.

Rukia said, "It's hardly my fault you let down your guard. You're out of practice, Ichigo."

Out of practice at being suddenly attacked when he was peacefully reclined. A consequence of not living with his father. He got to his feet, read to show her who was better at Hakuda.

Reading his intention, Rukia said, "Really, Ichigo? Is a tap like that more important than hearing about Renji?"

Ichigo glowered, and subsided. "Fine." He'd get her later, when she least expected it. Not a reciprocal stomp, because as strong as she was, she was still so small, but something. "How's Renji?"

"Very well, as you would've heard if you'd been listening. Advanced Class 1. He's made rivals with Hisagi Shuhei."

"Okay." He had no idea who that was.

Her eyes narrowed. "A man with black hair."

"Uh-huh." She'd just described 60% of shinigami.

"He has the number 69 tattooed on his cheek."

Ichigo was taken aback. He should remember someone like that. Had they really met? Rukia seemed to think so. Probably a hello and goodbye after he'd saved Rukia but before he'd left Soul Society. Ichigo said, "Why does he have a tattoo? And why 69?"

"I don't know. But he's talented. Many people have already marked him as a future Lieutenant. I think he might do well in Division 9."

"Good for him," Ichigo said. He searched his memory. "I've got nothing." He shrugged. "When's Renji's next day leave? We'll show him around."

"No," said Rukia. "What are you thinking? We may visit the Academy once or twice, and happen to speak to him while we're there, but an Academy student can't pall around with two Seated Shinigami. We'll wait until he graduates. It's only five years."

It still surprised Ichigo how Rukia would speak of five or 10 years as if it wasn't long at all, but as Ichigo got older, he slowly found that perspective less and less unnatural.

:::

Canonically, in terms of the manga, I don't believe we actually see Rukia's zanpakutou spirit. I think we only see Ichigo's, Renji's and Hitsugaya's. Hitsugaya's is a dragon. Renji's is a baboon with a snake for a tail. I haven't actually watched the Zanpakutou rebellion arc, but I've seen a little about it. I understand that lots of people like it, and maybe I would too if I watched it. (I stopped watching the anime sometime during the battle for Karakura and just read the manga from there.)

But choosing to make the zanpakutou into people is a bit disappointing in my mind. I generally don't find people very evocative. The non-humanness expressed by Renji's Zabimaru and even somewhat by Ichigo's spirits is to me much more interesting. Let the characters be people, I say; let their Inner Spirits be something else. And so I will probably never write a Bleach fanfiction in which Rukia's zanpakutou is a white-haired woman.

There is such a thing as temperatures below absolute zero. When I read the description, I do not understand. It sounds to me like an accounting trick. But it is apparently a meaningful one.


End file.
